Dave Reardon: Radford’s 1981 Prep Bowl victory is worthy of remembering as well as a movie

Every 10 years we make note of Radford High School’s emotional and magical run to the 1981 Prep Bowl championship. John Velasco, the Rams coach, died of a heart attack the night before their first playoff game. Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of Radford’s 14-2 championship win over Saint Louis.

A player on that Radford team, Brian Norwood, said he’s looking into writing a book or producing a film about it. I’m surprised it hasn’t already been done. There’s more than enough for an ESPN 30 for 30, or even a full-length feature film.

It’s got some of the same dramatic elements that made “Remember the Titans,” and “Friday Night Lights” great movies about real-life high school football teams. And there’s the main dramatic, tearjerker storyline of Velasco’s passing, with the sense that his spirit was still with the Rams as they made it past strong teams from Waianae, Castle and Saint Louis.

There’s at least one more human interest aspect to the Rams’ story that would translate very well to the screen. Radford had a “Rudy” … except unlike the Notre Dame walk-on who wouldn’t give up, this one became a starter. And he made one of the biggest plays in the history of Hawaii high school football.

Many local sports fans remember Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo was the starting quarterback for this team, and UCLA associate head coach Norwood starred for the Rams as a defensive back. After high school, they both played at the University of Hawaii before becoming college coaches. They still maintain strong ties to the islands.

But the biggest star of Radford’s Prep Bowl championship game came and went like a comet.

Who is George Reny? Who is this 145-pound second-string linebacker who picked up a fumble and ran for a touchdown, covering 94 yards — more yards than Radford passed or rushed for all game against Saint Louis?

Maybe it’s best to start with who was George Reny, back in 1981.

“I was a punk,” Reny said in a phone interview this week. “Back then I smoked a lot of pakalolo and I wasn’t doing well in school.”

But being on a football team coached by Velasco helped Reny grow up, he said. And he loved the team so much that he came back to Hawaii for his senior season at Radford, thousands of miles away from his family. Like many Radford students, he was a military dependent.

“My dad was in the Navy, and he was assigned to Virginia right after my sophomore year,” Reny said. “My junior year, in Virginia, was at a school with a really poor football team. So I wrote some sad letters to Thor’s dad (Junior Salanoa), and he said I could come live with them.”

Niumatalolo, whose family lived on the North Shore, also stayed at the Salanoa home.

“Mr. Salanoa would wake us up really early. Thor (the Rams tight end) and Ken were working out like high-level athletes,” Reny said. “You couldn’t really get away with anything. After a while I moved in with some other friends.”

Reny did work hard at practices though.

“He earned our respect because he was tough and smart. And he could run,” Niumatalolo said. “He looked like a skateboarder with his long hair, and I guess you could say he played like a skateboarder — fearless.”

Reny started the season as a backup to one of Radford’s best defensive players, linebacker David Faleafine.

“I remember paying a lot of dues,” he said.

When Faleafine suffered an injury late in the season, Reny was ready.

“Mostly, I just remember the trauma and the drama of Coach Velasco dying,” Reny said. “But after we beat Waianae, I thought maybe we have a chance to do this.”

The Rams were 8-0 in the regular season, and went into the Prep Bowl with a 10-game winning streak.

Neither team scored in the first half. But the Crusaders moved the ball at will — until they got to the red zone. They had drives die at the Radford 10-, 19- and 8-yard lines in the first half.

It was more of the same after halftime.

“When it counted, the Ram defense threw up every roadblock imaginable,” wrote Paul Carvalho of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. “Quarterback sacks, fumble recoveries and pass interceptions. They thwarted the Saints a total of seven times inside the 20 yard line.”

One of those times, in the third quarter, resulted in the decisive play.

“It was a sweep. A bunch of us were there, Via Manuma and I were the closest. I just threw my head in there and the ball popped out,” Norwood said. “Today, it might have been targeting.”

Reny, who had another fumble recovery in the game, was at the right place — as he was most of the game. Clyde Mizumoto of the Honolulu Advertiser credited him with at least 10 tackles.

“I was not known for having good hands, and the ball was bouncing,” Reny said this week. “I can still remember my hands feeling like they were frozen and thinking, ‘please, hands, please.’ I didn’t have any plan, I was just there. But I definitely believe in divine providence.”

Right after the game, Reny described it this way to Carvalho:

“It was like a dream. It was right there like a big balloon. … I thought I’d get caught, but Via Manuma made a great block and I trotted the rest of the way.”

In the fourth quarter, Niumatalolo threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to Greg Pace. It was one of Radford’s two complete passes and six first downs in the game. Saint Louis had 20 first downs and 277 total yards to 109 for Radford.

“We were giving up way too many yards, but somehow stopping them, magically,” Reny said.

The next day, Reny was gone, back to Virginia with his family, where he finished his senior year of high school.

Reny said that game gave him the confidence to walk on as a cornerback at James Madison University. He also became a better student, and graduated from law school.

Today, the self-described teenage punk is a judge who specializes in workers comp cases.

Reny said he thinks about Velasco and his coaching style often.

“It was what I really needed at that time of my life. He wouldn’t cuss you out, but he was stern. He would enforce the discipline fairly, and he dismissed some pretty good athletes because they didn’t meet the standards that he set. He was someone you’d want to do your best for.”