Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals was feeling the heat.

Not Arizona’s desert scorch, but the heat when a University of Hawaii training facility turns into a kiln.

Last week, the NFL’s second-highest paid quarterback worked out in Klum Gym, which is serving as the temporary weight room while the Waterhouse training complex is being renovated. Murray could have used the Warrior Recreation Center on the Upper Campus, a state-of-the-art facility with strength-training equipment, an indoor track, exercise areas and a multi-purpose court where basketball runs go into the evening.

But the real grind is found in Klum, the home for UH volleyball matches through 1993. Klum is now emptied of pull-out wooden bleachers. Waterhouse’s equipment and racks are now set on padded platforms in Klum. Opened doors provide the “A/C.” UH’s sports teams — and Murray — know that heavy metal does not feature bells and whistles.

“It’s the vibe that’s in there,” said UH assistant coach Chris Brown, a former Warriors middle linebacker. “It’s the sweat. It’s hot. There’s nothing nice about it. It’s all work.”

Tupu Alualu, a former UH running back who has been a Saint Louis School assistant coach for 14 years, recently watched some Rainbow Warriors train in Klum.

“I think it’s better,” Alualu said. “It goes back to the ways when we were winning, with the Holiday Bowl (in 1992), with the old gym. They need to go back to that gray cotton shirt. They’ve got to go back to not having much, to earn it.”

Before the Waterhouse facility was built in the Stan Sheriff Center in 1994, UH’s sports teams and the student body shared a weight room on the Lower Campus. Alualu likened that weight room to the no-frills one he used at Saint Louis. Gerber Fieldhouse, which no longer exits, was noted for a tin roof that was relocated from Kamehameha Schools.

“That fieldhouse is where we won the championships,” Alualu said.

Of the makeshift training area in Klum, Alualu said, “it reminded me of the humble beginnings.”

He said many local high schools have modest training facilities. “This is why a lot of kids make it out to college and the NFL,” Alualu said. “We come from a humble place where we don’t have much. But we have enough to work out and get ourselves better. Right now, a lot of our kids are getting opportunities. It’s because we can step back and say, ‘I didn’t come from anything. What is there to lose?’”

Brown said Klum has ample space for the entire football team to train.

“Nobody’s squashed,” Brown said. “You can get in there and you can yell, you can scream. It feels right because of the energy in there. You see the boys training hard. You see the coaches pushing hard. I love it being able to break that sweat and be in that vibe of old-school, hardcore gym.”

Brown noted little has changed since his playing days in the early 2000s.

“You can have the prettiest weight room in the world with all the brand new equipment,” Brown said, “but here’s the truth: You still have to lift that weight. With the weights we have right now in Klum Gym, those are the same weights we used when we worked out as players. We set some crazy records with those exact same weights. At the end of the day, it’s not what equipment you have or how cold the A/C is blowing. It’s how you actually lift the weights. Being in Klum Gym gives that vibe, and the boys actually want to push harder because of that energy in there.”

The Warriors’ hope is their football fans also will embrace the austere conditions of the Ching Complex, which features metal bleacher seats. UH had to retrofit the Ching Complex for home football games when Aloha Stadium officials self-condemned the Halawa facility for spectator-attended events in December 2020. Alualu attended last year’s Hawaii Bowl at Ching to watch his son, a defensive tackle for San Diego State.

“I had a great time,” Alualu said. “Who complains about the seats? Metal? We’re in Hawaii. (Aloha) Stadium is closed. You’ve got to make the best with what you have. Why be spoiled?”

Brown said: “It’s about good times, the fun times you make when you’re at the games. It doesn’t have to be the nicest stadium in the world. It’s about what we do when we’re inside the place, and that place is rocking and everybody is having a great time.”