Gimme Some Sugar, Baby!

[Author’s note: I pulled the intro to this article from an email I sent this week to a fellow Warrior fan. Kawehi, if this looks familiar, now you know why!]

What a game.

What an exciting, heart wrenching, stomach turning, mind blowing, yet utterly appropriate way to end the most incredible season in UH Football history. The team demonstrated the composure, execution, talent, heart and teamwork that has characterized their magical run. The coaching staff made all the right adjustments. The fans remained a factor even after the team fell into a 21 point hole and Colt Brennan lifted his game to an otherworldly level, exactly when the team (and the entire State of Hawaii) needed him most.

It was an absolutely, unequivocally unforgettable game. With all due respect to the Boise State game and hyperbole, it was the most important game in the history of the University of Hawaii sports. It did not take any prior history of fandom or Aloha Stadium experience to understand and appreciate the full impact of that victory, not just to the football team or a small group of fans, but to the entire state of Hawaii. You could feel it in the urgency of the crowd willing the team to a comeback, hear it in the voices of the fans sitting around you, and see it on the faces of the players, coaches and students as they celebrated on the field and danced in the parking lot long after the game ended. Whether it was clear from the outset or became clear in the aftermath, the 49,677 people in that stadium witnessed much more then a football game.

They witnessed history.

(Well, all except the guy sitting directly in front of me. I kid you not, he was on his laptop, writing a research paper about Sudoku for the entire game. I have the picture to prove it. Unbelievable!)

Prior to the game, Hawaii residents bemoaned the sky high prices and competitive resale market that developed for the tickets. After the game, you could not find a single fan who regretted paying the $75-600+ for their ticket (Washington fans excluded, of course). And who can blame them? The game unfolded like a MasterCard commercial.

4 Tickets to the game on Craigslist: $500
Aloha Stadium Parking: $5
Beer, sausage, kalbi and poke for tailgating: $50
Green and White body paint: $7.50
Watching your star quarterback, who gave up a multi-million dollar signing bonus and the chance to play in the NFL, lead the team back from a 21 point second quarter deficit with a transcendent quarterbacking performance that he capped off with a game winning touchdown pass in the final seconds: Utterly. Totally. Unquestionably. Priceless.

As my mom so eloquently put it, they could make a movie about this season and no one would believe it.

“No way do they win their second game of the season with a 49 yard field goal to send the game into overtime and a pass deflection on their opponents two point conversion on the final play of the game.”

“No way do they win a nationally televised game on the road, against their former coach, in overtime, after a 14 point comeback, in torrential rain, in the mud.”

“No way do they win a game, on the road, without their starting quarterback with a desperation drive that involved long third and fourth down conversion and ended with back to back 45 yard field goals.”

And, finally…

“Absolutely, no way, no how, do they win their final game after giving up three first quarter fumbles, a penalty on fourth down to extend a drive and surrendering 21 unanswered points by outscoring the other team 35-7 to end the game, capped off by a game winning drive where the star quarterback overruled the coaches call to score a touchdown on the final play of his college career and a game saving stop where the defense intercepted the final pass that bounced off the opposing Tight End’s hands, in end zone, with seven seconds remaining.”

That’s too Hollywood. It is not remotely believable.

But I believe. And so do the other 49,676 people at Aloha Stadium as well as the hundreds of thousands of Hawaii residents and millions of ESPN viewers who saw, no, experienced the game for themselves. Perhaps most importantly, the college football coaches, Harris poll voters and computer ranking systems who determine the BCS ranking believe, because Hawaii ended up with a top 10 BCS ranking, which guaranteed them a spot in the Sugar Bowl as well as the $4,500,000.00 (I like to type it out. It seems bigger that way.) paycheck which coincides.

So whether you’re an old fan, a new fan, going to the Sugar Bowl or watching the game at home, sit back, relax and drink in the victory. Blow hundreds of dollars on University of Hawaii merchandise, tattoo “June Jones 4 Life” on your forearm, name your unborn child “Colt Brennan” (Please, honey. PLEASE!), paint your house green and white, mow a giant “H” into your lawn, learn the ha’a, grow dreads or dye the Hawaiian islands in the side of your head. Just remember, no matter what you do, clear all your plans for January 1st and write your Sudoku paper BEFORE the Sugar Bowl.

Trust me on this one.