Aloha Stadium is both dumpy and kind of charming. After 45 years of hosting sporting events and just about everything else under the Hawaiian sun, the venue announced it wouldn’t be accommodating any new contests. That’s because it is hemorrhaging money and may even be condemned.
This decision has left the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in a bind. And anyone hoping for the NFL Pro Bowl to return to Honolulu must also be sad. Aloha Stadium has seen its fair share of highlights over the years. No one will ever forget the late Sean Taylor lighting up punter Brian Moorman in 2006.
There have been plenty of low lights as well, such as the cancelation of a U.S. Women’s National Team due to unsafe turf. Here are a few things you may not remember about Aloha Stadium.
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It was designed by idiots…
Aloha Stadium used a weathering steel that rusts until a protective patina is created, giving it a charming appearance. At least that’s what happens in normal climates. In areas with lots of ocean salt in the air, the steel just keeps on rusting. Which brings us to 2021. These days Aloha Stadium is more rust than stadium and needs hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs. Consultants found it would actually be cheaper to simply build a new facility at this point.
But they were also geniuses…
Multi-purpose stadiums were all the rage in the 1970s which led to the creation of a ton of venues that looked very similar. What makes Aloha Stadium unique is its pivoting stands that allow all seats for football and baseball to be close to the field without any quirky issues. Think of the randomly tarped off right-field wall of seats in the Metrodome or the wonky corners at Three Rivers Stadium.
In the football configuration, there are four stands running along the sideline. For baseball, these are split and pivoted out allowing for seats to be situated along the foul line and outfield wall. It basically goes from an oval shape to a diamond.
Eight years of legendary QB play
It’s easy to forget how prolific Hawaii football was in the 2000s. The Rainbow Warriors set all kinds of passing records under June Jones and were one of the most exciting teams in college football at the time. Having two record setting quarterbacks certainly helped. Timmy Chang finished with 118 career passing touchdowns which was second most ever when he left the school in 2005. He has since been passed multiple times, including by the guy who replaced him, but remains the leader in interceptions thrown.
Colt Brennan took over from Chang in 2006 and would become the all-time career passing touchdowns leader with 137. This mark didn’t stand for long as the record was overtaken by Graham Harrell a year later. All things considered, Hawaii had some amazing QB play for eight straight seasons.
Baseball finds paradise
Back in 1997, MLB went to Hawaii and used Aloha Stadium’s baseball functionality to host a brief regular season series between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Diego Padres. Dubbed the Paradise Series, these games are best known for a 38-year-old Rickey Henderson running into a tarp wall trying to catch a ball hit by Ron Gant. The end result was the only inside-the-park home run hit during a regular season MLB game in Hawaii.
Michael Jackson’s only US concert in the 1990s
The King of Pop only went out on tour twice during the 1990s, but neither featured any stops in the continental US. In fact, Michael Jackson’s only US concert during the 90s was at Aloha Stadium. He performed two shows here in 1997 as part of his HIStory World Tour.
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