Last week, news of a potential future Hawai'i football "home" game against UCLA at Sofi Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Chargers and Rams, accompanied an announcement of the Rams holding their mini-camp at Maui's War Memorial Stadium. While the move could start a troubling trend for Hawai'i football, it offers redemption for a bowl snub over three decades ago.
Hawaii fielded one of its greatest teams ever in 1988. The Rainbow Warriors knocked off #9 Iowa in the opening week of the season, the school's first win over an AP top-ten team. The win made up for past top-ten near-upsets against USC in 1979. Nebraska in 1982, and BYU in 1984. Hawai'i finished the season at 9-3 and tied second in the WAC.
An explosive flexbone offense coordinated by second-year coach Paul Johnson led the Warriors. Quarterback Warren Jones threw for over 2200 yards and 19 touchdowns while adding 669 yards on the ground. Fullback Heikoti Fakava ran for 860 yards and 12 touchdowns, while linebacker David Maeva earned First-Team All-WAC honors on defense. Hawaii looked poised to make its first bowl game ever. (Note: Although Hawaii participated in the New Year's Classic/Poi/Pineapple Bowls from 1934-1952, these are not NCAA-recognized bowl appearances since Hawaii participated regardless of record. For instance, the Warriors played in the 1937 Poi Bowl with a 2-5 record.)
Still, the Rainbow Warriors faced a precarious bowl situation in the WAC. The conference had only two automatic bowl bids, the Holiday Bowl in San Diego for its champion and the Freedom Bowl in Anaheim for its runner-up. Despite having the same conference record of 5-3 and a worse overall record at 8-4, the Freedom Bowl chose BYU due to their proximity. While the Freedom Bowl strongly considered Hawaii, the distance from the mainland was too much for the bowl.
The Freedom Bowl also considered Hawaii the following year after they finished 9-2-1. However, it did not matter since the Aloha Bowl came to their senses and finally invited the hometown Rainbow Warriors.
Make no mistake. In an ideal world, Hawai'i would not be moving home games. However, the increasing drawbacks to playing a 13th game in Hawaii of geographically vast conferences, a 12-team Playoff, and most importantly, the closure of Aloha Stadium have led to this.
Nevertheless, there is some solace for Hawai'i fans in this game. Unless the Hawaii Bowl ceases operations, the Rainbow Warriors will never play in the LA Bowl. While the Warriors played USC and UCLA in the Los Angeles area, none of those games had a "bowl game feel." The potential UCLA game at Sofi Stadium allows Hawai'i to compensate for a missed opportunity decades ago.
