Before the University of Hawaii football team tries to, well, bowl over Tulane University on Saturday on the way to the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, you hope there will be a drumstick or two raised in honor of the Green Wave and its president, Scott Cowen, today.

Thanksgiving is an appropriate time to reflect upon and appreciate the important but largely unrecognized role both played in the Warriors’ magical march to the Sugar Bowl four seasons ago.

And, yes, amid a 5-6 UH season, it does seem like longer.

But if the heady days of an undefeated regular season seem once-upon-a-time distant for the Warriors, consider how far away they must seem for the Green Wave that blazed but never got to reach the end of the Bowl Championship Series trail.

The year was 1998 and an 11-0 Green Wave team under Tommy Bowden from Conference USA was summarily passed over for BCS consideration. Actually, it was kicked to the curb since BCS arrogance, in the days before Congress began showing an interest, knew even fewer bounds.

Tulane was one of two unbeaten regular-season teams that year and was packed off to the Liberty Bowl and a $1.1 million payoff while teams with two and even three losses got BCS berths and $12 million payouts. And it wasn’t about to change anytime soon.

Which was why Cowen did more than just fume and rant. He rolled up his sleeves and went to work. He wrote scathing commentaries, went to Congress and rallied college presidents under the banner of the Presidential Coalition for Athletic reform.

Basically he made it his mission to open the BCS to those without pedigree, the nonautomatic BCS conference schools, by rattling the BCS throne. And he succeeded, to a remarkable point.

The success of Cowen and those who joined the ranks was seen in the invitations eventually extended to Utah and Boise State. And, ultimately in 2007, to UH.

When the Warriors were rewarded with a trip to the Sugar Bowl in Tulane’s New Orleans backyard, Cowen hosted a party after saluting UH as a team, “with an abundance of talent, heart and courage.”

Cowen said his own school, “was undefeated in 1998 and never had this chance to play in a BCS bowl. I felt terrible for our players that year, but am pleased to see that this injustice has now been rectified for others.”

You could make a case that the snub by the BCS ultimately cost the Green Wave a lot more than a place on the New Year’s Day stage. Had Tulane gone to the BCS in those days — as it would have under rules now in place — it might have been a more positive turning point for the program.

It might not have struggled so much on the field or financially in subsequent years. It probably would not have had to endure a 2003 vote over whether it would remain Division I. All that wrapped around Hurricane Katrina.

Instead, the Green Wave limp into Aloha Stadium Saturday at 2-10 (1-7 C-USA) to close out its ninth consecutive losing season.

If you are UH, there is reason to reflect and give thanks today.

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