At least one big hurdle for Army-Navy game here

Mahalo to Adm. Cecil Haney and his staff for hosting us for lunch at his home at Pearl Harbor. Adm. Haney is the commander of the United State Pacific Fleet. I was honored to be among about a dozen local media members invited to the gathering.

He laughed good-naturedly when I asked about the possibility of Hawaii hosting the Army-Navy football game sometime. Haney said it is an interesting idea but one obvious logistics problem quickly came to mind for him.

“We’d have to figure out how to get the midshipmen and cadets here. That would have a pretty high price tag,” the admiral said. “As for alumni, there would be no problem getting many of them to come.”

Ben Jay, the University of Hawaii’s new athletic director, will speak Wednesday at a lunchtime meeting of the Downtown Athletic Club.

Lunch at the Hukilau Restaurant starts at 11:30 and Jay speaks at noon.

Admission, which includes lunch, is $20 and reservations can be made by calling 523-3460.