Comments on: View from a former Rainbows football player

By: leahi2

leahi2 — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:32:59 +0000

I partly agree with #10 Aaron (above) in that the “H” logo is something we all love. I don’t want that to change. So to revert to the Rainbow Warriors moniker should not nean that we abolish the “H”. I hope your readers get this one thing straight. By the way, in my opinion, the old white helmets with the Rainbow logo on the back side was just plain ugly. I would think that it was and is the kind of ugliness that make lot of fans shudder at the talk of the Rainbow.

By: Kimo

Kimo — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:44:52 +0000

Great letter from Mr. Johnson, thank you sir for your straight forward comments/opinions, thoroughly enjoyed reading about your past experiences as a
“Hawaii Rainbow” or “Bows” or just plain “Warrior”, It sounds as though you were on several different teams in Hawaii. My personal thoughts on the subject of “name changes”, is that do I understand the name “Warrior” is exclusively a male dominated football name? And if I’m on the same page as are those on this website, is the name “Wahine” obviously a female dominated basketball, volleyball, softball, etc., name? Do we have a different name for the swimming team, tennis team, hopscotch team, etc, where both men and women participate, and are the men and women addressed by their gender? If you believe we readers are confused by these “name” callings, how do you suppose people around the country see our confused University of Hawaii marketing genius’.

By: Old School Dave

Old School Dave — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 19:48:10 +0000

Again, you can blame June Jones for this. Back in 1973 when he transfered to UH from Oregon, he was beaten out of the no. 1 QB position by Casey Ortiz (an SMU transfer). The next year, Larry Price took over as head coach, adopted the Rainbow Warrior name, shifted to an option style offense, (the Hula-T) that had moderate success (going 6-5 in 74 & 75) with Alex Kaloi running it. Jones, a drop back passer, was down on the depth chart and transferred to Portland State. Fast forward when Jones took over as head coach in 99, wanted to get rid of anything connected with the past and made the statement that there was no tradition before he came back to UH, thus with the help of his “Jerry McGuire” sports agent embarked and adopted the Warrior moniker and dumped Rainbow from being associated with the football program. New UH AD Ben Jay is simply trying to clean up the mess left over here with a athletic department that has an identity problem with too many nicknames for different teams.

By: Generation Y

Generation Y — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:36:13 +0000

Landscape has changed. Culture has changed. Technology has changed. Society has changed. Perception has changed. Young men and women now identify the Rainbow as a symbol for a certain community. An association that was not around in ’68, ’69, ’70, and ’71. The Bows memories of greatness are just that, History and should be preserved. But now is the future and a change was needed now. The young men of Generation Z appreciate the change and can hold confidence in their name, The Warriors.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:26:14 +0000

No one is “making an issue” of it because most people are ok with the change to “Warriors”. The “H” and the “Warriors” moniker has had a pretty successful trial run since its inception back in 2000. Whenever there is change, there are disagreements. But the fact that there aren’t any rallies being held to “Save the Rainbow” is telling. There is a very vocal minority who feel strongly about keeping the Rainbows nickname, but at the end of the day they are still a minority. This has less to do with any negative connotation for the rainbow and more to do the fact that a lot of people TODAY really like the “H” logo.

By: Paco

Paco — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:19:34 +0000

Very nice email. Unfortunately it is way to late. This was and should’ve been more vigourously debated when the name was first changed years ago. For all the stink the Joe Moore made once the football team started winning the Warriors stuck. While I don’t necessarily agree with Mr. Jay’s decision (I prefer Rainbow Warriors) I understand that something needed to be done to ensure all teams were consistent and am glad he acted to fix it.

By: pokie

pokie — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:25:26 +0000

Ben Jay is an outsider. He comes from the mainland where the term rainbow is mainly equated with the gay movement. He said he puts student-athletes first. He asked the student-athletes which name they preferred. Most of the student-athletes are kids who go along with current public sentiment, little consideration for tradition. I believe the sole reason Ben removed Rainbows from UH Athletics is because some of the players said they were being teased about the name. Branding is just an excuse. This question was asked before and I even emailed the AD ‘What is the difference between a Warrior and a Rainbow Warrior as far as branding is concerned?’ They’re both warriors. No reply was ever received from Ben Jay.

By: innocent observer

innocent observer — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 07:29:28 +0000

agree with Mr. Johnson 100%, there was no need to add warriors to the name and having a name as “rainbow” is not demeaning; it is truly unique and represents what UH is all about, the diversity of its students, faculty and the people of Hawaii. bring back the “rainbows”.

By: Brian Kataoka

Brian Kataoka — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 06:49:39 +0000

Mr. Johnson,

As a former UH alumnus Class of 76. I agree with you 100% Go Bows!

By: hossana

hossana — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 06:31:23 +0000

I am sick and tired of people criticizing the name change that the new A.D. implemented that will take effect as of July 1. If people were so adamant about it, why did they only get involve and start criticizing now when the new A.D. made the change. There was no protest prior to it but only when he said that the name will be WARRIORS for the men’s team did there seem to be slight criticism. Typical locals..always reacting instead of proacting….stop wasting energy on this topic….what’s done is done. I give the new A.D. credit for making a damm decision where everybody else was just dilly dallying or circumventing the issue. What’s done is done and the news media should just shaddup and accept it. Geezus, Christ!! Like we don’t have more imp. issues in the athletic dept. that the new A.D. is confronted with in this position.