alt=Jeff CallPROVO — For those who have followed the BYU and Hawaii football programs over the decades, the fact that the Cougars and Rainbow Warriors collide on Christmas Eve at Aloha Stadium in the SoFi Hawaii Bowl is a nostalgic holiday gift.
While it marks the first time the two teams will have played in a bowl game, it also renews a colorful, emotional and longstanding rivalry.
The Cougars and Rainbow Warriors have produced plenty of lore and iconic plays and games — particularly at Aloha Stadium — in a series that began in 1930.
”Some of the best plays I ever saw happened over there,” legendary coach LaVell Edwards once said. “It’s always a big rivalry. The game always meant a lot. A lot of times, it had conference championship ramifications associated with it.”
BYU owns a 13-8 record against Hawaii at Aloha Stadium.
After playing every season for years as members of the Western Athletic Conference from 1978 to 1998, the two teams have only squared off a handful of times this century (2001, 2002, 2011, 2012, 2017, 2018).
BYU is scheduled to play Hawaii in 2024 (Provo) and 2025 (Honolulu).
While in some ways it’s become a forgotten rivalry, plenty of on-field and off-field issues and incidents have stoked the fires between the two programs.
For example, the Cougars have been raiding the Islands for talent since the 1960s, before many of the biggest programs in the country started to do so. Some of the state of Hawaii’s top players have spurned the Rainbow Warriors to play in Provo.
In the late 1990s, BYU and seven other schools left the Western Athletic Conference to form the Mountain West Conference. Hawaii wasn’t among the teams invited, which, of course, didn’t sit well in Honolulu.
Then there’s the overwhelming success the Cougars enjoyed in the 1980s and 1990s, sometimes at the Rainbow Warriors’ expense.
What stands out most are the games the two programs have played at Aloha Stadium, featuring memorable plays, national implications and lasting consequences.
Here are a few that stand out.
1984: BYU’s greatest defensive stop plays big role in perfect season and an eventual national championship
In September 1984, BYU was 3-0 and ranked No. 6 when it visited Hawaii.
In the fourth quarter, the Cougars led the Rainbow Warriors 12-10. Hawaii quarterback Rafael Cherry directed a 10-minute, 84-yard drive to the Cougars’ 2-yard line. Cherry ran quarterback sneaks on first and second downs, setting up a third down and inches to go.
That’s when linebacker Kyle Morrell produced what’s been called the greatest defensive play in BYU football history.
Morrell decided to line up, in the end zone, across the line of scrimmage from Cherry.
As Cherry received the snap, Morrell launched himself over the center with flawless timing, collared Cherry by the shoulder pads and made a complete flip in the air. Meanwhile, his teammates smothered Cherry short of the goal line. Hawaii settled for a field goal to take a 13-12 advantage.
BYU then re-captured the lead by scoring on its next possession, a drive capped by a touchdown pass from Robbie Bosco to Glen Kozlowski on third-and-21 with a little more than five minutes left.
Hawaii punted on its next possession, but the Cougars answered with another punt, which was blocked. That gave the Rainbow Warriors the ball at the BYU 16-yard line. BYU’s defense rose up again as receiver Walter Murray dropped a pass that hit his hands in the end zone with 40 seconds remaining.
The Cougars escaped Honolulu that night with their perfect season intact, barely. But BYU’s national championship hopes could have died in Honolulu if not for Morrell’s heroics.
“It’s arguable, but the greatest single play in BYU sports was Kyle Morrell’s leap over the line at Hawaii,” said Vai Sikahema, who starred on that 1984 team. “Our offense wasn’t playing very well that night. That play, to me, kept us on course that season. That one play, to me, epitomized an entire season. It was a microcosm of the entire season. Guys on our team did that — left their assignments for the greater good of the team, to make a play.”
1989, 1990: Hawaii exacts revenge, mars Detmer Heisman Trophy celebration
From 1978 to 1988, BYU won eight consecutive games against Hawaii at Aloha Stadium and 10 overall.
Most of those games came down to the end and the Rainbow Warriors couldn’t figure out how to beat the Cougars.
But in 1989, a fired-up Hawaii team didn’t leave anything to chance.
The Rainbow Warriors throttled quarterback Ty Detmer and BYU, 56-14.
One year later, the Cougars returned to the Islands for the final regular-season game of Detmer’s junior season.
During the day, Detmer found out he had won the Heisman Trophy at the Princess Kaiulani Hotel in Honolulu. That night at Aloha Stadium, the Rainbow Warriors crushed the Cougars, 59-28.
“It was kind of surreal. The emotions and the build-up to (the Heisman) and then it was a big relief. Then your emotions kind of hit the floor,” Detmer recently recalled. “You could sit back and just relax and take a deep breath but now you’ve got to play a game.
“I just remember the start of that game, it was almost like neither team had much energy. Then as we went along, they got momentum and got it going and we didn’t. It was similar to the year before. It was kind of a weird feeling going out and playing a game after all of that.”
In that 1990 game, Detmer completed 22 of 45 passes for 319 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions. At one point in the second half, a Hawaii receiver struck a Heisman pose after scoring a touchdown, mocking Detmer and BYU.
2001: Hawaii’s ‘bowl game’ spoils BYU’s top-10 ranking, perfect season
Boasting a 12-0 record and No. 9 national ranking, BYU arrived in Honolulu for its regular-season finale.
The Cougars, however, were without injured running back Luke Staley, the Doak Walker Award winner, and having just been snubbed by the Bowl Championship Series, which relegated BYU to the Liberty Bowl.
Hawaii had a winning record but no bowl game to play in. Not to mention, this was the Cougars’ first trip to the Islands since leaving the WAC and leaving Hawaii behind.
For the Rainbow Warriors, this game felt like a bowl game — and they played like it.
Hawaii scored a pair of special teams touchdowns and capitalized on seven Cougar turnovers and smashed BYU, 72-45, resulting in crazy celebration at Aloha Stadium.
It was the most points ever scored by a Hawaii team and the most ever surrendered by the Cougars. The loss ruined BYU’s perfect season and knocked it out of the top 10 in coach Gary Crowton’s first season at the helm.
”The governor should declare this a holiday,” said linebacker Chris Brown after the game. “From now on this should be called ‘Beat BYU Day.’”
”We came out and beat Goliath,” said Hawaii wide receiver Ashley Lelie. “We beat up the bully.”
Quarterback Nick Rolovich, who is currently Hawaii’s head coach, completed 29 of 53 passes for 543 yards and eight touchdowns.
“I remember it being a really enjoyable game to be a part of,” Rolovich said a couple of years ago before the 2017 BYU-Hawaii game. “The best memory was watching Chad Owens return two early kicks for touchdowns that really got us jumpstarted and energized the crowd.”
How big was that win for the Hawaii program?
Sitting in Rolovich’s office today is the game ball adorned with statistics from that 2001 win over BYU.