Written by Ferd Lewis, former columnist for the Honolulu Advertiser and Honolulu Star-Advertiser, who covered nearly every University of Hawai'i home football game since the Rainbow Warriors moved into Aloha Stadium in 1975.
 
When then-Gov. John A. Burns resolutely pledged the state to take up the challenge of building a stadium in Hālawa in the late 1960s, he envisioned a launching pad to an ascending future for University of Hawai'i athletics.
 
One that would take UH athletics from its humble beginnings to grander horizons and allow it to bump shoulder pads with major universities across the NCAA landscape.
 
The dream was to move the Rainbow Warriors out of the decrepit "Termite Palace" and fall Mō'ili'ili mud hole that was Honolulu Stadium and onto a 50,000-seat stage that would befit its rise to its Division I membership and the eventual coming of its first conference affiliation in 1979.
 
From 1975, and for the better part of 46 years in a 211-145-4 run, what became known as Aloha Stadium has both fit the bill and helped pay many of the bills for what has become a nearly $50 million, 21-team athletic department enterprise. 
 
In addition to the absence of the once-upon-a-time roaring crowds, another feature lacking in the truncated final season of UH's tenancy, the pandemic-pummeled 2020 campaign was a suitable goodbye to the state's largest entertainment venue and flashback on some of the major milestones and impactful games.  
 
As the Rainbow Warriors prepare to move into their on-campus Clarence T. C. Ching Athletics Complex homefield, they have a Hālawa lot of memories from their old stomping grounds. 
 
Including games like these:
  UH 35, Washington 28 (Dec. 1, 2007). Roaring back from a 21-0 deficit, the Rainbow Warriors cemented a 12-0 regular season and vaulted into a Bowl Championships Series (forerunner of the College Football Playoff) appearance in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia. The UW game marked what would be the last UH sellout at Aloha Stadium. 
 
UH 39, Boise State 27 (Nov. 23, 2007). The then-14^th ranked 'Bows knocked off No. 17 Boise State, ending a streak of five Western Athletic Conference championships for the Broncos.
 
UH 56, Brigham Young 14. (Oct. 28, 1989). After the frustration of 10 consecutive losses to the rival Cougars and some elderly fans beseeching Coach Bob Wagner to pretty please beat BYU once before they died, the 'Bows punctuated this breakthrough with an exclamation point runaway that inspired fans to shake the facility's beams to the rusting core.

UH 59, Brigham Young 28. (Dec. 1, 1990). So much so did this one parallel the previous year's blowout of BYU that callers to KGU radio asked if the 1989 game broadcast was being replayed. It was almost as sweet, though humbling the 4^th-ranked Cougars on the day that their quarterback, Ty Detmer, was awarded the Heisman Trophy.
 
UH 23, Oregon State 17 (Dec. 25, 1999). The O'ahu Bowl victory completed the greatest single-season turnaround in NCAA history at the time, from an ignominious 0-12 in 1998 to 9-4 in 1999.

UH 31, Fresno State 24, 2 overtimes. (Nov. 13, 1999). UH nails down a share of its second WAC title with a rousing double overtime victory over the Bulldogs. 

UH 72, Brigham Young 45. (Dec. 8, 2001). The undefeated and 9^th-ranked Cougars came to Aloha Stadium hoping to impress a national TV audience and gain a BCS berth. Instead, the 'Bows stole the show in a game that laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Hawai'i Bowl.

UH 42, Wyoming 18. (Nov. 21, 1992). The Rainbow Warriors solidified a piece of their first conference championship, a trip to the Holiday Bowl and took a big step toward what would become the program's first season of double figure (11-2) victories. 

UH 27, Iowa 24. (Sept. 3, 1988). In his Rainbow Warrior debut, freshman Jason Elam, a future All-American and NFL All-Pro kicked the deciding field goal of 27 yards with 1 minute, 36 seconds remaining in the season-opening upset of the 9^th-ranked Hawkeyes.

USC 21, UH 5 (Dec. 2, 1978). Entering what would be the 'Bows' last game as an independent there was concern about how competitive the program might be when joining the WAC in 1979. But a stout showing -- UH trailed 7-5 into the fourth quarter -- against the national championship-bound Trojans in the first sellout (48,767) at Aloha Stadium answered those questions and set the stage for UH football to become a Saturday night event in the 1980s. 
 
Mahalo, Aloha Stadium.