Oh, Poi, What A Football Team

Hawaii's most deadly pregame weapon, the hotel luau, was still in reserve. It was scheduled for Friday night, and Devaney had agreed to produce the team. "Wait'll we fill 'em up with kalua pig, lomilomi salmon and poi!" chortled a Hawaiian fan. "That'll fix "em." Alas, not so. Some 3,500 hysterical Cornhusker fans accepted the culinary risk (6,000 more couldn't get in), but not the players—Schneider kept them home munching Nebraska steaks until the "feast" was over. They had spent the morning visiting the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor and they entered the luau in a body, defense to one huge room, offense to another. When the ovations subsided, the hula girls got one last shot at the visitors—Kinney, Tagge, Rich Glover and a few of the other stars were enticed up to the stage to learn about the hips and the hands. All this trouble went for nought. No dislocations, no sprained ankles. The love machine had failed. The point spread, which had started at Hawaii plus 170 after the Oklahoma game, steadied at a bettable Hawaii and 40.

Meanwhile up in Manoa, campus of the University of Hawaii, the Rainbows had completed a week of light workouts against Nebraska plays plotted from an exchange of film (neither team had sent scouts). Everyone seemed loose and unworried. Asked if he had any surprises in store for the Nebraskans, Coach Dave Holmes said: "Yeah, we're going to show up."

And they did. Soon after the opening kickoff it was Nebraska 3, Hawaii 0, then 10-0 and, still in the first quarter. 17-0. In the second period Johnny Rodgers showed the fans a replay of his Oklahoma punt return as he wove, feinted, slipped and slithered all the way to the Rainbow 15. ("And we gave him hula lessons," a Hawaii fan groaned.) This run, the most electrifying of the game, was nullified by a clipping penalty. Even so, the Cornhuskers led comfortably at halftime 24-3, much of it on Tagge's running and passing, and it took some courage for Hawaii rooters to parade a sign reading CRUSH NEBRASKA around the field.

And of course it was Hawaii that felt the crush in the second half. There was more Tagge, more Rodgers and even some Brownson and Anderson, enough to make the final score 45-3. Which naturally surprised no one at all. The only surprise losers among the whispering palms were the TV viewers, who were denied one Nebraska touchdown because of a commercial. Just think. Six more commercials and the score might have been 3-0, Hawaii.