<Begin Segment 17>

AH: And how many high schools were there, then, in Honolulu, because I know when you went to Farrington that last year that you were eligible, your senior year, Farrington won the championship in football, in basketball, and baseball, and it was the first time they had ever won the football championship.

WY: Right.

AH: How many teams were in Honolulu?

WY: There were seven. Seven teams.

AH: And who are they? Do you remember the names of the schools?

WY: I think it was Farrington, McKinley, Kamehameha, St. Louis, Roosevelt, Punahou, Kaimuki.

AH: And tell me something about those, because it helps me to understand a little bit about the Hawaiian high schools. Because I read the other day, for example, that you mentioned Roosevelt -- when Roosevelt was a school, I know your wife graduated from Roosevelt. I was kind of surprised about that because what I read was there were very few Asian students at Roosevelt, that most of them went to McKinley. But tell me a little about each of those schools.

WY: Well, Roosevelt, when we were going to Roosevelt, that was more, kids were going to Roosevelt, English standard school then. See, not too many people can go to Roosevelt in those days. From grammar school, you go all the way, you have to kind of speak good English and go to that school. Punahou was a private school. St. Louis was a Catholic school, so some of these guys went straight to St. Louis. But Camp School was a school that you have to get Hawaiian blood in you to go Camp School. But you still got McKinley, Farrington, Kaimuki and schools that are more public. A lot of the Orientals were going to that schools.

AH: Did Kamehameha, did they have a decent football team?

WY: Yeah, they had a good team. Our year, so it was between Camp School, Farrington, McKinley, St. Louis, all these teams. See, those days, like now, Punahou is a real strong team now, but our days Punahou was very weak.

AH: And so was high school football really big in Honolulu?

WY: Oh, yeah.

AH: And so all the games were played at the big stadium?

WY: No, they played at the old Honolulu Stadium. And that used to, that stadium used to hold 25,000 in those days.

AH: Is that the one we visited yesterday?

WY: Yeah, 25,000. So even today, I wish that they didn't knock that stadium down because they could really use that stadium for baseball.

AH: And where did the University of Hawaii play at that time?

WY: They played there.

AH: Oh, they did?

WY: Yeah.

AH: Did they have decent football games then?

WY: Oh, in those days? Yeah, they had pretty good football teams in those days, yeah. They had some good ballplayers.

AH: And were there some stars that came out of the University of Hawaii, or not?

WY: Well, they didn't, they didn't play pro, but they had some good football players at that time.

AH: And so, what was, your main rival the year that you won the championship, who did you beat for the championship?

WY: We beat Camp School. Camp School, we beat St. Louis, McKinley. This was the three big schools that we really beat.

AH: And what were the highlights of the year for you personally? What kind of... did you have a very big game against a particular opponent?

WY: Well, lot of the, lot of the games, like, think like Camp School, we beat 'em 10-7 as I scored all the points. Like St. Louis or Roosevelt, I scored most of the touchdown and did so well.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2003 Japanese American National Museum. All Rights Reserved.