The best shows were not at the Hawaii Theater or Kumu Kahua Theatre.

They were at Spindrifter, Tony Roma’s Kahala, Yum Yum Tree, Big City Diner in Kaimuki, Verbano Ristorante Italiano.

Every Monday during the football season in the 1990s, the storytellers would gather for lunch and to trade tales until the third order of atomic onion rings was consumed.

Jim Leahey, the play-by-play announcer for University of Hawaii sportscasts, was the master of ceremonies. Sometimes he would order in a faux Italian accent, sometimes he would nod for the “usual.”

Joining Leahey were Don Robbs, the play-by-play announcer for UH baseball broadcasts; sportscaster Robert Kekaula; Bobby Curran, who eventually would call Rainbow Warrior basketball and football games for three decades; beat writer Paul Arnett of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and columnist Ferd Lewis of the Honolulu Advertiser.

All were grammarians and wordsmiths. Leahey’s pet peeve was run-on sentences that kept going on like this one. Kekaula was agitated if someone incorrectly inserted “of” into a sentence. Later as a sports editor, Arnett banned the over-used “what’s more” and “physicality.”

They would laugh over stories, argue about television shows, feign interest in another Leahey book review, do impersonations of coaches, then impersonate themselves.

All were opinionated, moral and generous.

While serving in the Navy in 1968, Leahey angrily scolded a supervisor for speaking dismissively of a civil-rights leader. The next day, Leahey was sent to Vietnam.

Leahey’s motto was: it’s better to do right than to be right. When he first started calling games, he brought students from Campbell High, where he taught for several years, to UH sporting events. After recovering from leukemia in the 1990s, he continued to send gift baskets and tickets to the nurses. He ended every meal at Jack’s Restaurant by thanking the cook and waitress, then picking up the tab for a random diner.

Robbs was Hawaii’s Jerry Lewis, serving as host of the Easter Seals Telethon. He helped start the Taste of Honolulu. He served on Manoa Valley Theater and neighborhood boards. Monster homes being planned or people dumping bags of dog poop in your trash bin? Robbs would listen.

When restaurateur Don Murphy needed an auctioneer for the annual “Pigskin Pigout” fundraiser for the UH football team, he turned to Curran. With no experience, Curran took on the role for several years until he began suffering health issues in 2022. “He did a great job,” Murphy said.

Jo McGarry Curran said her husband also never turned down an invitation to speak at banquets, meetings, church services. “He always wanted to help,” she said.

“In the vault”— code for keeping something hush-hush — Kekaula sponsored a scholarship. For a food booth supporting Aloha United Way, Kekaula made 100 “bumbucha laulau” stuffed with pork, beef and everything else on a cardiologist’s no-no list.

Kekaula, Curran and Robbs were the first to welcome a 24-year-old Eran Ganot as a UH assistant basketball coach. “They took it upon themselves to show aloha to student-athletes and young coaches,” said Ganot, who completed his 10th season as head coach.

All were committed to their craft. As part of pre-game preparation, Leahey and Curran would write info on each player on Post-it-sized cards, then attach them to a board, which became their carry-on items on flights. Kekaula, with Hallmark-quality handwriting, also would create detailed notes for games. Arnett, who once covered UNLV’s NCAA champion basketball team, was on Jerry Tarkanian’s speed dial. Lewis used red and black pens to chart football games on a personally designed play sheet. When he was a baseball beat writer, Lewis broke so many stories the coaches accused him of wiretapping the drains.

Arnett and Lewis retired in April 2021, and Kekaula died two months later. Leahey died in January 2023. Don Robbs passed away in January. And Curran died on Sunday.

The next generation of sportscasters — Kanoa Leahey, John and Mark Veneri, Tiff Wells, Felipe Ojastro, Rob DeMello, Josh Pacheco — are the voices. The proverbial torch has been passed to continue to tell Hawaii’s sports stories and “to do right” in the community.