HA Note: "Many who went to New Orleans said they had the time of their lives, despite the blowout loss to the University of Georgia, and want to separate those memories from any criticism of the university. But the missteps by UH administrators before and after the game, and the secrecy the university used to try to shield some decision-making, have left a mark on the experience."
About the mistakes by UH, HA quotes a state lawmaker:
"The best things happen to us and we just rip it apart. We had this big moment, this big opportunity, and it all collapsed into a pile of kukae." (HA)
HA Note: "Virginia Hinshaw, the UH-Manoa chancellor, was at the University of Wisconsin in 1994 when the Badgers went to their first Rose Bowl in 40 years. Herman Frazier, who was then UH-Manoa's athletic director, was a bowl veteran from his time at Arizona State University. Their skill sets, others say, helped the university meet the logistical challenge of moving more than 550 people in the UH delegation to the Mainland on three weeks' notice. One UH administrator likened the task to quickly sending a U.S. Army brigade from Schofield Barracks to South Korea."
About how they will learn from their mistakes with the Sugar Bowl, Chancellor Hinshaw said:
"That's what you do. I mean that's normal. You assess. I learn from history, I don't live in it. I can't. You learn, you try to get better and that's the goal. I appreciate the opportunity to learn if there's things that we need to do in a different way." (HA)
HA Note: "Among the mishaps before and after the Sugar Bowl:
# Frazier's decision to return some of UH's initial 17,500 allotment of bowl tickets after underestimating demand led to unnecessary anxiety and accusations of favoritism among fans.
# The travel policy hastily drafted by Frazier and Hinshaw appeared arbitrary and led to questions of fairness when staff who had helped with the football program were left out while spouses, companions and children were allowed to go.
# UH President David McClain apologized to fans for the university not working faster to try to renew June Jones' contract as football coach. Jones left UH in January to coach at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The university fired Frazier and bought out the remaining two years of his contract.
# Jim Donovan, who replaced Frazier as athletic director, apologized to state lawmakers in March for what he called evasive and inaccurate financial information provided by the athletic department in the past.
# The university apologized and agreed to pay attorneys' fees to The Advertiser last week to settle a lawsuit by the newspaper under the state's open-records law. The university had initially declined to release a complete list of people who traveled to the Sugar Bowl and the university's expenses. The university also had offered to allow people to be removed from the list if they paid UH their expenses for the trip."
About how the biggest lesson learned was that UH should have ticket and travel policies in place that are either approved by the UH Board of Regents or the Chancellor's office, Rep. Takai said:
"The second-guessing and Monday morning quarterbacking we had after the game would have been a nonissue." (HA)
About how the Sugar Bowl raised UH up a few levels, Takai said:
"I think the Sugar Bowl experience took us up quite a few notches and, as I've said many times, we deserve to be back at a BCS bowl game in the future. Some people may believe that this was kind of a fluke and a one-time thing; I don't think that way. What it's done for our community and what it's done to our program, I don't think you can put it into words nor can you put it in terms of money. I personally have very fond memories of the experience." (HA)
About how planning for a major bowl might need to go beyond athletics and UH, State Senator Norman Sakamoto said:
"I'm not sure, when it gets to the level of a Sugar Bowl, that things should be relegated to the football coach, or solely to Manoa's chancellor or athletic director, because sports in Hawai'i, especially football, is a statewide issue, so at some point the system or the regents at least need to be involved." (HA)
About the Sugar Bowl, Sakamoto said it was a:
"learning curve. Hopefully, there is a next time — soon — and we have an opportunity to be better prepared. It's like when the first hurricane hits, we say 'we could have, we should have.' If the second hurricane hits and we didn't address what we learned from the first hurricane, it's like, 'wait a minute.' " (HA)
HA Note: "State Rep. Jerry Chang, D-2nd (S. Hilo), the chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, said it was a new experience for everyone involved. But he believes now, looking back, that it should have been clear to UH administrators that staff spouses, companions and children should not have gone to New Orleans at state expense."
About how UH administrators should know that spouses, companions, and children should not have gone to New Orleans at state expense, State Rep. Jerry Chang said:
"Everybody is on notice now." (HA)
HA Note: "Dan Mollway, the commission's executive director, said he wrote McClain in December about the Sugar Bowl after hearing questions about the university's ticket and travel preparations. The next day, Mollway met in Manoa with Hinshaw, Frazier, associate athletic director Carl Clapp and other administrators. Mollway said Hinshaw and Frazier did most of the talking and described the importance of UH making a good impression in New Orleans."
About how Hinshaw and HF were mostly concerned about making a good impression in New Orleans, Hawaii Ethics Commission Executive Director Dan Mollway said:
"There seemed to be a notion that if a university was not really gung-ho and enthusiastic about a bowl experience, that this would reflect negatively on the university, and according to what we heard, would also affect others in the (Western Athletic Conference,)." (HA)
HA Note: "Mollway said he recalls being fairly explicit that state law, under the fair treatment section of the ethics code, prohibits state officials from using their positions to give unwarranted privileges. He said, generally, the state does not pay the travel expenses of staff spouses or companions unless there is a legitimate state purpose.
Hinshaw and others, Mollway remembers, said there would be several social functions surrounding the Sugar Bowl and that spouses and companions should be allowed to attend. Mollway said he recalls hearing that some staff children might also have to attend because of the hardship of either leaving them home or finding childcare around the holidays. He said he recalls UH administrators saying that children would not travel at state expense."
About how he felt that UH officials were following the rules when he met with Hinshaw and HF, Mollway said:
"We felt that under the circumstances, the uniqueness of the Sugar Bowl, that what they were telling us seemed warranted. They said they were being very scrupulous, that they would be sending only the people who really best represented the university, and this was, of course, beyond the people who needed to go like the athletes and the band." (HA)
HA Note: "UH administrators, according to Gregg Takayama, a UH-Manoa spokesman, remember the conversation differently. They recall that the discussion was mostly about ticket allocation and that no specific decisions were made about travel expenses."
About his meeting with Hinshaw and HF, Mollway said it was:
"a very, very open, very honest, very good-faith discussion. A discussion that stated quite clearly that they were making every effort to be scrupulous, and that everything would happen the way it should happen, and that was the tone of the whole conversation." (HA)
HA Note: "Mollway said that, because of the positive tone, he asked Frazier at the time if he could speak about the discussion with the news media and he said Frazier agreed. Matters involving the ethics commission are usually confidential and Mollway typically does not publicly discuss such conversations."
About how playing in a BCS Bowl (the Fiesta Bowl) was very different than any other bowl they had been in, Gary Andersen (defensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Utah) said:
"It was a remarkable experience. From A to Z, it was something that I'll never forget and I don't think the kids will ever forget. For the kids to walk into that game, play in that game, and finish off an undefeated year was fantastic. It surely had its challenges but it was a great experience." (HA)
About how the Sugar Bowl will be remembered for the enthusiasm of the Warrior Fans in New Orleans, Hinshaw said:
"The highlight of the Sugar Bowl was the fan participation. It gave us great visibility. The stories — the aloha spirit meeting the Southern hospitality — was a great combination. We generated more fans by being there because of the behavior and presentation and representation of the fans and officials. It was just wonderful to see. And it does impact on those next opportunities, knowing that your fans will show, they will come, they will support, and they couldn't have been more wonderful." (HA)
About how the Sugar Bowl was invaluable to UH, JD said:
"There is no way you can ever take that away, and all the value that came with it. All in all, to do the Sugar Bowl again? Absolutely. Would we do everything exactly the same? No, we wouldn't. That's part of the learning process." (HA)
About how they considered the lessons from the Sugar Bowl when they made their ticket policy for Florida and Oregon State, JD said:
"They're real, and you have to learn from them. "To me, the biggest mistakes are the ones that you don't learn from. And those are the ones that people should get hammered for, in my opinion." (HA)
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