UH Athletics Timeline
1909 UH fields its first football team, two years after the College of Hawai‘i is founded.
1912 UH fields its first men’s basketball team.
1920 UH plays its first intercollegiate game when the football team hosts Nevada on Christmas Day.
1923 A Rainbow appears over the football field during UH’s upset of Oregon State, beginning the school’s nickname
“Rainbows.”
1941 The morning after UH’s Shrine Game football victory over Willamette, Japan invades Pearl Harbor resulting in the
start of World War II and the cancellation of the next four football seasons.
1946 UH football returns as a member of the NCAA.
1948 Men’s basketball wins its first game against a collegiate opponent at Seattle.
1952 Flyweight Roy Kuboyama captures the first of UH’s three national boxing champions which would later include
featherweight titles by Seiji Naya in 1954 and ’55.
1955 The football team upsets Nebraska, 6-0, in Lincoln in one of the school’s all-time biggest wins.
1966 Football team turns to an all-collegiate schedule
1969 Men’s basketball turns to an all-collegiate schedule
1971 Les Murakami becomes head baseball coach and the program goes from club team to Division I.
1972 Men’s basketball team earns an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament, its first-ever trip, and posts a 24-3 record.
1973 The football team upsets Washington in Seattle after entering the game as a 50-point underdog.
1974 Highly successful women’s volleyball and basketball programs begin its first year.
Football team moves up the ranks as a NCAA Division I member.
1975 Women's swimmer Barbara Mitchell win's the school's first individual championship in the 200 IM
Women’s golfer Marga Stubblefield places second in the AIAW National Championship.
1976 Terry Albritton captures the men’s track and field program’s first national title in the indoor shot put.
1977 Baseball team hosts its one and only NCAA Regional at Aloha Stadium.
1979 Women’s volleyball team captures AIAW National Championship.
Baseball player Derek Tatsuno becomes NCAA’s first 20-game winner and program’s first first-team All-
American, finishing with a 20-1 record.
Men’s programs join the Western Athletic Conference.
1980 Baseball team finishes second in the College World Series after capturing the Western Athletic Conference title in
its first season in the league.
1981 Football player Blane Gaison becomes first UH athlete to win the prestigious Stan Bates Award as the WAC’s top
scholar athlete.
1982 Women’s volleyball team wins school’s first NCAA Championship after a 33-1 campaign, earning Dave Shoji
national coach of the year honors.
1983 Women’s volleyball team repeats as NCAA champions finishing with 34-2 record and in the process became the
first school in NCAA history to win back-to-back titles.
Swimmer Jeannie Childs wins a pair of NCAA championships in the 100- and 200-breaststroke.
1984 Women’s volleyball player Deitre Collins wins the Broderick Cup, presented to the nation’s top female collegiate
athlete.
Track and field star Gwen Loud captures the NCAA long jump title with a leap of 22’-5.75, becoming UH’s first
track All-American.
Rainbow Stadium—later renamed Les Murakami Stadium—makes its debut. UH would lead the country in
attendance twice within a decade of its opening and the 208,378 fans that came through the gates in 1992 set a
then-NCAA record.
Women’s programs join the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, later renamed the Big West Conference.
1985 Softball program, which would begin to enjoy national success in the 1990s, is established.
Men’s swimming squad wins its second straight WAC title and finishes 18th at the NCAA Championships.
1986 Football player Al Noga becomes the program’s first to be named to the AP All-America first team.
1987 Women’s volleyball team captures the NCAA Championship with 37-2 record; Teee Williams named national
player of the year.
Vince Goo is hired to head the women’s basketball program, which he would direct to 10 20-win seasons, eight
postseason tournament appearances and more than 300 wins.
1988 Women’s volleyball team returns to the NCAA Championship but falls to Texas in the title match.
1989 Football team posts a 9-3-1 record and first-ever trip to a NCAA-sanctioned bowl game (Aloha Bowl).
Women’s volleyball player Teee Williams captures second national player of the year honor
Women’s basketball player Judy Mosely is the program’s first All-American.
1992 Football team wins the WAC and earns a trip to the Holiday Bowl—the program’s first mainland bowl—where
they defeat Illinois to cap an 11-2 season.
Men’s and women’s tennis coach Jim Schwitters earns his 1,000th victory, en route to an NCAA career record for
most combined wins.
1994 Men’s basketball team wins its first WAC Tournament and earns an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament
for the first time in more than two decades.
The Special Events Arena, later renamed the Stan Sheriff Center, officially opens. Women's volleyball team leads
the nation in attendance, a mark they would hold till the present day.
Women’s soccer program is established.
1996 Women’s programs join the Western Athletic Conference.
Women’s volleyball team loses to Stanford in the NCAA Championship match but Angelica Ljungquist earns
national player of the year honors and becomes the school’s only four-time first team All-American.
1998 Women’s water polo program debuts with a fourth place national finish under head coach Shari Smart.
Baseball coach Les Murakami records 1,000th career victory.
1999 Football team sets an NCAA record for largest turnaround season (9-4) winning the WAC and the Jeep O‘ahu
Bowl.
2000 UH Athletics unveils new “H” logo, replacing the iconic rainbow logo.
Women’s volleyball team fails to reach title match after losing to Nebraska in the NCAA Championship
semifinals.
Baseball coach Les Murakami is inducted to American Baseball Coaches’ Association Hall of Fame, a year
before retiring after 31 seasons at UH.
2001 Women’s track and field returns after a 16-year absence headed by Carmyn James.
Women’s sailing captures its first national title in just its fifth year of existence.
2002 Men’s volleyball team wins NCAA Championship with four-set victory over Pepperdine in State College, Pa., a title
that would later be vacated.
2003 Women’s volleyball advances to the NCAA Championships in Dallas, Texas and loses to Florida in the national
semifinals. Kim Willoughby is named AVCA National Player of the Year while Kanoe Kamana‘o is National
Freshman of the Year.
Football makes its second consecutive trip to the Sheraton Hawai‘i Bowl and defeats Houston in a triple overtime
shootout, 54-48.
2004 Coed sailing team wins ICSA Dinghy Championship in Cascade Locks, Ore., the second sailing national
championship for UH in four seasons.
Timmy Chang breaks the NCAA Division I career passing yardage mark in UH’s win over Louisiana Tech at Aloha
Stadium, surpassing Ty Detmer’s record of 15,031 set in 1991.
2005 Football player Chad Owens is awarded with the Mosi Tatupu Award as the nation’s top special teams player, at
the Hula Bowl.
Women’s diver QiongJie Huang becomes the first UH diver to win an NCAA Championship in the 1-meter
springboard event.
Women’s water polo finishes in fourth place in its first-ever trip to the NCAA Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich.
2006 Women’s water polo finishes in fourth place at the NCAA Championships in Davis, Calif.
Baseball head coach Mike Trapasso is one of three finalists for the College Baseball Insider National Coach of
the Year award after leading the Rainbows to a 45-17 record and qualifying for their first NCAA Regional since
1993.
Women’s golfer Dale Gammie earns Golfweek’s National Player of the Week award after winning the individual
title at the Heather Farr Memorial on Oct. 3 in Broomfield, Colo., becoming UH’s first female golfer to win a
tournament since 1986.
Football wins a shootout over Arizona State, 41-34, in the Sheraton Hawai‘i Bowl and wide receiver Jason Rivers
sets a national bowl game record with 308 yards receiving. Quarterback Colt Brennan sets an NCAA single-
season record with 58 touchdowns.
2007 Women’s soccer makes its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament after winning the WAC regular season
and tournament.
Football completes an undefeated regular season and earns an invitation to its first BCS bowl game, the Allstate
Sugar Bowl. Quarterback Colt Brennan is invited to New York City for the Heisman Trophy presentation and
finishes third.
2008 Women’s diver Emma Friesen wins the NCAA Championship in the 1-meter springboard becoming the second
UH diver in four years to capture a national championship.
A record 10 current and former UH athletes capture medals at the Beijing Olympics.
Men’s tennis captures the first of three straight WAC titles and advances to its first NCAA Tournament for the first
time.
Women’s track and field finishes 25th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, its highest finish in school history,
and garner three All-Americans.
2009 Women’s water polo finishes in fourth place at the NCAA Championships in College Park, Md.,
Head women’s volleyball coach Dave Shoji earns his 1,000th career victory, becoming just the second volleyball
coach in NCAA history to reach that milestone. Shoji is named AVCA National Coach of the Year later that season.
2010 Softball team completes recording-breaking season with a first-ever trip to the Women’s College World Series in
Oklahoma City, Okla. Team upsets top-seeded Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the Super Regionals to advance to
the World Series.
Amber Kaufman wins the NCAA Championship in the high jump becoming UH’s first track and field national
champion in 26 years.
Football captures its fourth WAC title with a 10-win season.
UH announces it will join the Mountain West Conference in football only and Big West Conference in most other
sports beginning in the 2012-13 season.
Women’s volleyball head coach Dave Shoji is inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame.
2011 Diver Emma Friesen wins the Joe Kearney Award, presented to the WAC’s top student-athlete. It was Friesen’s
second Kearney award and eighth overall for Hawai‘i.
2012 Sand volleyball made a successful debut as a collegiate sport with four players qualifying for the inaugural AVCA
nationals.
Women’s tennis captures the WAC Tournament title and an earns its first-ever bid to the NCAA Championships.
