The last (and only) time the University of Hawaii played a football game on a neighbor island, the Warriors were led to victory by a sophomore quarterback. Timmy Chang completed 31 of 45 passes for 435 yards as UH beat Montana 30-12 on Sept. 8, 2001, at War Memorial Stadium in Wailuku.

The crowd for that game was announced at 11,254, but UH also received donations from corporate sponsors to make up for the difference caused by ticket sales to fewer than 20,000 paying customers.

It’s hard to guess how many fans the Warriors — who were coming off a 3-9 season in 2000 — would have drawn for the Grizzlies at Aloha Stadium back then. Montana was a solid program, but not the high-profile draw like a USC or a Notre Dame that would fill the 50,000 seats at Aloha.

Regardless, things are a lot different now and UH should take a serious look at playing on Maui again, as soon as Maui is ready.

For one thing, there is no Aloha Stadium to play football at now, and the soonest its replacement will be ready for use is the 2028 season. And, although it is supposed to be expandable, the new stadium’s capacity is expected to be around 25,000 — half of what the old Aloha Stadium could seat.

Until then, the Warriors’ home field is the 15,000-seat Clarence T.C. Ching Complex on the Manoa campus.

And that sophomore quarterback, who ended up breaking all kinds of NCAA passing records? Chang is in his second year as UH’s head coach.

After practice one day before his first game last year, I asked Chang what he thought about playing occasionally on Maui, especially while awaiting construction of the new stadium. He responded that he wanted to look into it.

“We had a great turnout last time we were there,” he said.

Hey, it worked 22 years ago, why not now? And now, you don’t have a 50,000-seat stadium.

Others floated the idea last year, but it didn’t get much traction.

All of that, however, was before the tragic events of two months ago, when the deadliest U.S wildfire since 1918 killed close to 100 people and caused an estimated $5.5 billion in damage to Lahaina.

Now, playing on Maui isn’t just a novel idea. It is simply the right thing to do to help the Valley Isle get back on its feet. Did I mention it’s been done before, successfully?

Craig Angelos, UH’s new athletic director, agrees it should be explored.

“We would be open to that,” he said in a text Tuesday. “I have not spoken to anyone about it but it is something we could think about.”

UH is subbing as host of the Maui Invitational basketball tournament next month since the Lahaina Civic Center is not available this year because of the fire. We can consider a football game to be named later completion of a trade that, in the big picture, is a win-win for the state.

It has been a while since War Memorial hosted that one UH game, and the Hula Bowl annually. But after being there to cover Lahainaluna High School’s football teams’ emotional return to competition Saturday, I can tell you the facility is in good shape, especially the natural grass playing surface.

I would say the facility is in great shape, except end zone bleachers that were installed in 1998 for the Hula Bowl are in disrepair and not open for use. Parks and Recreation Director Pat McCall told the Maui News in June that the stadium will be closed during the 2024 football season for renovations to get capacity back up to 15,000.

Even if that gets delayed because of other construction priorities stemming from the fire, it’s much more likely that War Memorial Stadium will be ready to host the Warriors before a new Aloha Stadium is.