For inspiration today as it plays at the University of Wyoming, the Hawaii football team need look no further than Ikua Purdy, the stout figure on horseback depicted on the Paniolo Trophy, the oldest rivalry prize in the Rainbow Warriors’ trophy case.

What the Big Island-raised Purdy (1873-1945) did in Wyoming in 1908, a year before UH played its first season of football, is the stuff of enduring legend across two states. Not only in Waimea, where a 16-foot by 27-foot statue of him about to rope a steer rises by the road, but at the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days Old West Museum, where his black-and-white picture and a sculpture are on exhibit and occasionally honored with lei.

Legend has it that Eben “Rawhide” Low, who owned and operated the Pu’u Wa’awa’a Ranch on Hawaii island, attended the annual Frontier Days in Cheyenne in 1907, a premier rodeo competition, and came away believing his Paniolo were more than up to the task.

So, in 1908, three of them made the weeks-long trek, traveling by ship and train, to Cheyenne, where Purdy, as they say, “Cowboyed-up,” winning the steer roping event in a remarkable 50 seconds, according to official records, becoming the first from outside the area to take the event. Two others, Archie Ka’au’a and Jack Low, placed in other events.

“Hawaiians Beat Westerners Roping Steers,” a Wyoming newspaper headline said. By the time they departed, the term Paniolo (pronounced “Panny-olo” in Wyoming) had become known to the crowd of 10,000 reported to have been in attendance.

Purdy went on to earn places in the National Rodeo Cowboys’ Hall of Fame and Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame before taking a place in UH football lore when the school joined the Western Athletic Conference in 1979.

To mark the series between UH and Wyoming, a member of the Wyoming Paniolo Society, a group of Hawaii residents with roots in the Cowboy State, sponsored what would become known as the Paniolo Trophy.

The initial trophy was a donated bronze mantle piece depicting a lariat-twirling figure on horseback with the notation, “Both (football and the work of a paniolo) recognize the need for high-caliber tough, rugged individual performance while also recognizing an overriding requirement for team work in moving the herd.”

The trophy went back and forth between the two schools until 1999 when the WAC broke apart and Wyoming jumped to the Mountain West Conference.

By the time UH joined the MWC in 2012 and was to resume playing Wyoming in 2013, the whereabouts of the trophy had become a mystery. Wyoming, which last held title to it, winning for a fifth consecutive year in a 1997 game in Aloha Stadium, said it thought the trophy had been left in Honolulu to undergo repairs.

But UH officials had no recollection of it remaining here and searches of both athletic departments were unable to locate the trophy.

In an effort to restore the tradition, a concerned Wyoming alum contacted the Paniolo Preservation Society on Hawaii Island seeking help.

The Society had earlier commissioned western artist Fred Fellows to come up with a life-sized statue of Purdy for display in Waimea and put 100 maquettes on sale at $3,200 each to help fund the project. Society president Dr. Billy Bergin offered one of the remaining maquettes for a replacement trophy.

Wyoming leads the Paniolo Series, 14-9, and UH’s exuberance in coming across the field to re-take possession after a 17-13 victory in the last meeting in 2018 nearly precipitated a brawl.

Now, UH said, when the Paniolo Trophy travels, it is packed, foam-encased, in a specially made, metal container.

It is the least they could do for Purdy, an inspirational figure who won in Wyoming when it really was a road trip to get there.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.