Remember '99: Warriors Picked to Finish Last, End Season as WAC Champs

As part of Homecoming Week, we'll be looking back at the magical run of the 1999 Warrior Football Team in recognition of the 25th anniversary of their incredible turnaround from 0-12 a year before, to 9-4 WAC Champions. Each of this week's stories ran following the season as part of a special edition 1999 season in review program. Members of the 1999 team will be honored during Saturday's game vs. Nevada.

There are moments in a person's life they will never forget ... a first kiss, a first car, a first job, and a first Western Athletic Conference football championship!

For the players and coaching staff of the 1999 University of Hawai‘i Rainbow Warrior football team, that memorable moment came at Aloha Stadium on Nov. 13, 1999. The WAC Championship was won that night, in dramatic fashion ... a 31-24 double-overtime victory against Fresno State.

"This is wild, this is for Hawai‘i, this is for everybody," said Craig Stutzmann, who caught the game winning touchdown. "Everybody is WAC champs on this day, for the media, for everybody."

It's ironic that the player would include the media among the recognized. At the WAC Football Media Preview in July, Hawai‘i was predicted to finish dead last in the eight-team race for the conference title. That prediction came despite a Joe Namath-like guarantee at the time from senior offensive tackle Adrian Klemm.

"I think some teams are going to be in for a shock," Klemm said at a Dallas Hotel last July. "If everybody stays in school, no one flunks out, and we get the recruits in, I personally don't think we have any challenges in the WAC ... I think a lot of teams will overlook us, think we’re doormats. It's understandable. But they're going to be in for a shock. I don't think they'll expect us to be where we are."

And there they were that November night … playing the team picked to win the conference, Fresno State.

Fresno State scored the game’s first touchdown, but Hawai‘i answered back with three of its own. The Warrior defense helped set up all three scores by recovering Bulldog fumbles. Hawai‘i defensive back Dee Miller set a school record with three fumble recoveries. His two recoveries in the first half set up both of Hawai‘i's touchdowns. Dan Robinson's five-yard touchdown strike to Dwight Carter tied the game after the first quarter and capped a 52-yard drive. A 44-yard drive ended with Robinson's quarterback-keeper from the one-yard line. That score put the home team ahead at the half 13-7 after the PAT failed.

With a scoreless third quarter coming to a close, Hawai‘i linebacker Yaphet Warren recovered a Bulldog fumble. A short while later Robinson found Ashley Lelie from 15-yards out for a touchdown. Avion Weaver's run up the middle on the two-point conversion put Hawai‘i ahead 21-7.

Then the Bulldogs bit back. Fresno State scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to force overtime. An Aloha Stadium crowd of nearly 38,000, that had been singing in the stands anticipating the impossible, was reduced to stunned silence. Had Hawai‘i's version of "Mission Impossible" come to an end?

Hawai‘i won the overtime coin toss and elected to play defense first. In the first overtime, both teams traded field goals. Hawai‘i appeared to be on the verge of winning the game in the first extra period when they had a first-and-goal on the three-yard line. However, the Warriors were unable to get the winning six points and turned to place-kicker Eric Hannum, who had missed three of his last four attempts, to tie the game. Brian Smith snapped the ball to punter Chad Shrout who placed it nicely for Hannum. And then, while everyone in the entire stadium held their breath, Hannum's kick sailed 29-yards through the uprights and the Warriors were back in business.

In the second overtime, Hawai‘i started on offense. Robinson connected on a crossing pattern to Lelie for a 20-yard gain. Two plays later Robinson lofted the ball into the corner of the end zone and Stutzmann grabbed what would prove to be the winning touchdown.

"We knew we just had to get in there and score and put points on the board, not just three (points) if we wanted to win," said Stutzmann.

"I didn't think Dan (Robinson) was going to throw it to me, but right when it was in the air, I ran as hard as I could and secured it with all my might ... my little baby, that's what it was."

The Bulldogs still had an opportunity to force a third overtime, but thanks in large to the inspired play of defensive end Joe Correia, Fresno State would be denied. Correia, who was playing with one good hand and on one good knee, was good-to-go in the overtime period as he batted down one pass and sacked Bulldog quarterback Billy Volek. Volek's desperation pass on fourth-and-game sailed out of the end zone as the Hawai‘i football team sailed on to the field for a celebration to remember.

"That feeling at midfield after the game was just awesome," said head coach June Jones. "That's what we play for, and to be quite honest, that's why I'm back in college ball …the emotion those kids showed … coaches even having fun … everybody having fun. That was an unbelievable game and I just couldn't be more happy for the kids. They have worked so hard, and we needed this for them to really feel like winners and champions. We played sixty-plus minutes, they showed character in all different kinds of ways, and I just can't say enough about their heart."

With Hawai‘i's seventh win of the season, Jones had engineered one of the greatest turnarounds in NCAA football history … just another first in a career of many more to come.