In every office he's held throughout his career, Rick Blangiardi has reserved a spot for a football bearing in white lettering the date and score of a game that continues to resonate in University of Hawai'i football lore.
 
9-15-73
HAWAII—10
WASHINGTON—7
 
More than a souvenir from that afternoon in Seattle — which happened to fall on Blangiardi's 27^th birthday — the ball provides a reminder of one of the greatest upsets in UH history and the possibilities that endure amid long odds.
 
"I keep it there as kind of a metaphor," said Blangiardi, the Rainbow Warriors' linebackers coach back then and current Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu. "Because what it stands for is you can overcome the odds not matter how great they are if you believe in yourself and if you're willing to work."
 
Friday, the eve of another game in the Pacific Northwest to face a heavy favorite, marks the 50^th anniversary of Hawai'I's upset of Washington to open the 1973 season. The current Rainbow Warriors (1-2) face No. 13 Oregon (2-0) on Saturday at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore.
 
Under then-head coach Dave Holmes, who grew up and started his career in Washington, the 1973 Rainbow Warriors returned a senior-heavy lineup coming off an 8-3 season with their losses coming against Tennessee, Grambling and Stanford.

Still, Washington entered the opener as a prohibitive favorite — as much as 50 points by some accounts — under coaching legend Jim Owens, who was entering the 17^th season of what would be an 18-year career spent building the Huskies into a West Coast power.
 
Even so, Jeris White, a standout cornerback on the 1973 team, recalled a sense of self-assurance that permeated the travel party as he reminisced about the game during a recent visit to a UH practice.
 
"We were confident in our ability," said White, who went on to a nine-year career in the NFL culminating with a Super Bowl title with Washington in 1982. "We had Dave Holmes as our head coach, and you didn't want to make mistakes playing for (defensive coordinator) Larry Price.

"We we're supposed to get torched in that game. But, you know, we had Larry Price, and Larry Price knew defense."

 
Price led a defensive staff that included Blangiardi in his first season as the full-time linebackers coach and a new defensive backs coach in George Lumpkin, who finished his UH playing career just two years earlier as teammates with White and the other seniors.
  
Blangiardi recalled a reminder of the Rainbows' national perception when prognosticator Jimmy "The Greek" gave his prediction of the outcome.
 
"I remember as were leaving the hotel hearing him say, 'and in the west today the University of Washington Huskies are playing the Rainbow Warriors and you can name the score because they could make it anything they want,'" Blangiardi said.
 

Washington appeared to be on its way to the expected finish when fullback Pete Taggares scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 5:12 left in the first quarter.
 
UH answered with a 27-yard field goal by Reinhold Stuprich 2 ½ minutes later and a scoreless second quarter sent the Rainbows into the locker room within striking distance of the Huskies.
 
Although the UH offense had struggled to hold on to the ball and finished with four lost fumbles and two interceptions, the defense continued to keep the Rainbows close with a goalline stand at the UH 3-yard line.
 
"For those games it's just you just want to outhit people," White said. "Don't make mental errors and outhit people. Because if you outhit people, that changes people's attitude. … You could see it change player by player."
 
Blangiardi echoed White's praise of UH's defensive coordinator and eventual head coach and felt Washington's return to a "smashmouth" approach after an injury to the Huskies' starting quarterback worked in the Rainbows' favor.
 
"The genius behind all of it was Larry Price," Blangiardi said. "Larry could get these guys to play at a level that was extraordinary. 

"Larry had more than a sixth sense at calling a defensive game. Once we got a sense of what they wanted to do … if there was ever going to be an opportunity for us, it was that style of football. It was who was more physical."
 
The outlook for the remainder of the game shifted abruptly in the third quarter when UH quarterback Casey Ortez, who edged Oregon transfer June Jones for the starting job, connected with receiver Allen Brown for a 24-yard touchdown.

 
Washington advanced inside the UH 10 on three drives in the second half. Each time a UH defensive front led by tackles Levi Stanley and Paul Lee, ends Cliff Laboy and Pat Richardson and a linebacker corps including Manny DeSoto, Charlie Sutton, Dexter Gomes and Danny Miller denied the Huskies a go-ahead score.
 
"We looked at it like we were about to be shoved off a cliff and that we couldn't let it happen." Stanley, who led the Warriors with 11 tackles, told the Honolulu Advertiser's Bruce Spinks after the game. "We proved who was king of the mountain."

White, a graduate of Radford High School, was among three members of a UH secondary who went on to play professional football along with fellow cornerback Harold Stringert and safety Ken Shibata. Safety Johnny Duckworth contributed seven tackles to the defensive effort against the Huskies.
 
Stringert, a Saint Louis alum, came down with three interceptions against the Huskies, the last coming with 3:37 left in the game.
 
Hawai'i kept the ball for the remainder of the game with a running game led by Albert Holmes (20 carries, 115 yards) and Tui Ala (17 carries, 70 yards).
 
When it was over, the Rainbows celebrated in front of a stunned crowd of 52,500.

 
"I wasn't too proud to have tears coming down my face," Blangiardi said. "It was incredible because it was against all the odds."
 
"We knew what it was like to play big-time teams, but for us to knock them off, especially in the season opener when they were expected to just run all over us, it was a great feeling."
 
At the same time, the outcome didn't exactly catch the players off guard.
 
"It was a great feeling because we were supposed to get our butts kicked," said White, who contributed five tackles. "But you know something? It wasn't a cocky feeling. It was just, 'OK we won,' because I think we expected to win."
 
Back at the hotel that night, Blangiardi took a game ball and cut it into pieces, writing the date and score on each. He presented the snippets to each member of the team, "to make it something that they would cherish, because to me, they all owned a piece of (the win)."
 
When Blangiardi left coaching for a career in television, Price gave him the ball that he's kept in every office he's occupied since.
 
"When we went to KING TV in Seattle, half our building was populated by Huskies," Blangiardi said. "That used to drive them crazy that I had that game ball. But there was no denying it and they all knew it."