Wednesday, May 4, 2005 | 9:33 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
The famous sign out on Las Vegas Boulevard South reads "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" or as those who paddle around in outrigger canoes call it, East Honolulu.
The synergy between The Islands and Southern Nevada is getting so profound that we now have Hawaiian restaurants, Hawaiian department stores, a Hawaiian marketplace and even a Hawaiian hotel-casino, even if they got the name all wrong (the California). So it only figures that we should have Hawaiian sports.
That's the thought Mike Hamrick had on Sept. 19, 2003 when in his second home football game on the job as UNLV athletic director a crowd of 34,287, bolstered by more than 10,000 wearing floral shirts and grass skirts, jammed into Sam Boyd Stadium to watch the Rebels knock off the Warriors of the Western Athletic Conference, 33-22. It was the third-largest crowd in UNLV history, which is remarkable given the game was shown on ESPN2 and not blacked out here.
In what had to rattle the macadamia nuts of anybody who passed Business 101 with a C-minus, it was the first time Hawaii had visited Las Vegas since 1997. But it won't be the last time, according to Hamrick and his old pal and colleague, Hawaii athletic director Herman Frazier.
The two recently announced their schools will play a home-and-home football series in 2006 and 2007 with an unofficial option to renew for as long as necessary and/or profitable. Hawaii and UNLV will meet in Honolulu on Sept. 16, 2006 and in Las Vegas on Sept. 15, 2007.
The traveling team in each instance will receive a $200,000 guarantee.
"At the end of those discussions when we signed those contracts (Herman) and I said let's let the smoke clear, and then the next time we see each other, let's talk about playing a couple of more games," Hamrick said.
He was talking about football, because the schools already have agreed to play two basketball games next season. It's unusual when nonconference opponents meet twice in the same basketball season, but in that it's about the only thing the NCAA doesn't have a rule against, there's really no reason why the Rebels and Warriors can't say "aloha" twice a year in hoops.
"We just thought that would be a good thing to do," Hamrick said of the basketball series. "We've got about a 2 1/2-week period where we can't play in our arena (due to the National Finals Rodeo), so we had some (open) dates and decided to go there."
The Rebels and Warriors haven't played each other during the regular season since 1997, when they were in the same conference (the know-no-boundary 16-team WAC). They met in an NIT game at the Thomas & Mack in 2003, where there were more leis in the crowd than layups on the court, at least for the Rebels, who got Don Hoed, 85-68.
Hamrick said the UNLV marketing staff would put together a package for fans desiring to make the basketball trip, but it's the football game that potentially could be a gold mine for both schools. The hope is it will become a West Coast version of the Red River Shootout between Texas and Oklahoma, only with Mai Tais and ukuleles instead of Jack Daniels and steel guitars.
"According to the people in Hawaii, they absolutely love coming here," Hamrick said. "And I'm under the assumption that some of our fans will try to go there. So we're absolutely committed to continuing the relationship in football."
So, apparently, is Frazier, the former Olympic quarter-miler from Arizona State who was the athletic director at Alabama-Birmingham in Conference USA when Hamrick held the same post at East Carolina.
"We all know about the Hawaii-Las Vegas connection," Frazier said when the football series was announced. "We are not only happy to have worked this out for our football program, but also our fans who love to make frequent trips to Las Vegas."
But, as Hamrick noted, it wasn't exactly rocket science that put the Warriors and Rebels back on each other's schedule.
"We just got together and said 'let's play,' Hamrick said. "It's good for both programs."
So the next time Frazier casts his Hawaiian eye toward Las Vegas and asks about scheduling a couple of more games, Hamrick already knows what he is going to say.
"Book 'em, Dano."
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