@dave-fulton12 years ago
Interesting, Jim. Those look like baseball outfield distance markings on the wall as well as a football scoreboard. Nice looking cars.
@dave-fulton12 years ago
Here's the answer to the mystery track in this story:Honolulu Stadium HONOLULU Stadium, a Moiliili landmark that was torn down in 1976, is the inspiration for the motif of First Hawaiian's new University Bank Center.DiMaggio homered while playing for the 7th Army team in a June 1944 game at the stadium, which drew more than 30,000 fans.Other memorabilia include a 20-cent program from the Hawaii Islanders' inaugural 1961 Pacific Coast League baseball season, and a ball marking Hawaii's membership in the World Football League's only year of play, in 1975.and fan favorite "Cherry Nose" Neves' stock-car racing exploits there.
There's also a painted view of the left-field bleachers with the Melim tire scoreboard clock, whose second hand, sportscaster Jimmy Leahey often remarked, went from 12 to 6 faster than from 6 to 12.
"It fell faster because of gravity but had to struggle back up, so it came out to be a minute," Leahey said.Memorabilia spawns conversations, and the bank is doing its part to keep 50 years of Honolulu Stadium memories alive."I used to watch high school games at the old stadium mostly every Friday after work," said Richard Kurata, 77, a Kapahulu resident and regular bank customer."I've never been to the new stadium (in Halawa)," he said. "I come to the bank often but I never noticed (the displays) before."It's really nice of them to do this."In the glory days of prep football at the old stadium, nothing symbolized the intense rivalry in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu more than the painting raids staged by Roosevelt and Punahou.The "Paint Brush Trophy," on loan from Punahou School, has been part of the stadium display since the bank opened last May but will be returned next month, Suehiro said.Mike Topolinski, a 1941 Roosevelt graduate and football-letter man, remembers the painting raids that fueled the rivalry with Punahou."It started around 1939 when they came to our campus and painted the football field in Punahou colors," said Topolinski, 77. "In '41, someone put up a Roosevelt flag at Punahou and cut the rope on the flagpole."They had to hire a steeplejack to get it down. It just went on from there."Another year, red paint was tossed into Punahou's swimming pool.To tone down acts of vandalism, the two schools established the "Paint Brush Trophy" in 1948, which they vied for 22 times through 1969, when the rivalry ended with the breakup of the old ILH."It was an attempt to make the rivalry stand for something other than vandalism," said Dave Eldredge, who played, coached and taught at Punahou."Since paint brushes were the major thing, we decided to use it for the trophy, he said."Eldredge and Star-Bulletin columnist Ben Wood, who was Roosevelt's quarterback, played in the first "Paint Brush" game in 1948, won by Punahou 13-10.Years later, Eldredge saved the "Paint Brush" from the rubbish heap during an athletic facility cleanup and kept it at home until his recent retirement, when he gave it back to the school.On permanent display is the Roosevelt High football jersey worn by the late John Bellinger, First Hawaiian Bank's chief executive officer, and the Hawaiian Commercial & Businessman's Athletic Association trophy cup awarded to him in 1940 as the ILH's most outstanding player.Another interesting exhibit item is the "Poi Pounder," a trophy established during World War II when St. Louis School and McKinley became rivals while sharing the same campus.St. Louis held classes at McKinley while its campus served as a military hospital.
@dave-fulton12 years ago
From Geocities/Hawaii: In the late 1950's and early 1960's, before Hawaii Raceway Park came into existence, they raced stock cars in Honolulu Stadium. It was a multipurpose stadium, used for baseball, football and track and field events.The dirt race track ran around the outside of the football field. The baseball home plate area was in turn three, and the dugouts were open to the race track. Sometimes cars crashed into the dugouts.They ran 1930's vintage Fords and Chevys. The cars were aligned into three divisions:Futurity - no engine modifications Sportsman - limited engine modifications Modified - unlimited engine modifications The events they ran were much like they do today. They started with time trials for each car. Then they ran trophy dashes for each division. Then heat races, semi and main events for each division. One difference was that they used an inverted start, where the slower cars started in front of the faster cars. That made for good action as the faster cars moved their way to the front.Spectators were much closer to the action then they are now days. The seats were directly behind the outside wall. There was a red stripe painted on row 5, and you weren't supposed to sit below the red line. Good thing too, because cars went over the wall at least twice, tearing down the chain link fencing on top of the wall.They had two support vehicles on the infield, a little jeep for pushing stalled cars off the track, and an old wrecker, for towing the more badly damaged cars off the track.The pits were under the stadium seats. You could hear the modified engines roar during other races.Some weekends it rained, so the races turned into mud races. Sometimes they scheduled special mud races, so if it didn't rain, they had to water down the racing surface with garden hoses.Click here to see all the pictures.
@jim-wilmore12 years ago
Fantastic research Dave, thanks, very interesting, never would have guess Honolulu would have modified stock car races. Very cool
@jeff-gilder12 years ago
This....is what I love about this site! Absolutely awesome!!
Interesting, Jim. Those look like baseball outfield distance markings on the wall as well as a football scoreboard. Nice looking cars.
Here's the answer to the mystery track in this story:Honolulu Stadium
HONOLULU Stadium, a Moiliili landmark that was torn down in 1976, is the inspiration for the motif of First Hawaiian's new University Bank Center.DiMaggio homered while playing for the 7th Army team in a June 1944 game at the stadium, which drew more than 30,000 fans.Other memorabilia include a 20-cent program from the Hawaii Islanders' inaugural 1961 Pacific Coast League baseball season, and a ball marking Hawaii's membership in the World Football League's only year of play, in 1975.and fan favorite "Cherry Nose" Neves' stock-car racing exploits there.
- There's also a painted view of the left-field bleachers with the Melim tire scoreboard clock, whose second hand, sportscaster Jimmy Leahey often remarked, went from 12 to 6 faster than from 6 to 12.
"It fell faster because of gravity but had to struggle back up, so it came out to be a minute," Leahey said.Memorabilia spawns conversations, and the bank is doing its part to keep 50 years of Honolulu Stadium memories alive."I used to watch high school games at the old stadium mostly every Friday after work," said Richard Kurata, 77, a Kapahulu resident and regular bank customer."I've never been to the new stadium (in Halawa)," he said. "I come to the bank often but I never noticed (the displays) before."It's really nice of them to do this."In the glory days of prep football at the old stadium, nothing symbolized the intense rivalry in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu more than the painting raids staged by Roosevelt and Punahou.The "Paint Brush Trophy," on loan from Punahou School, has been part of the stadium display since the bank opened last May but will be returned next month, Suehiro said.Mike Topolinski, a 1941 Roosevelt graduate and football-letter man, remembers the painting raids that fueled the rivalry with Punahou."It started around 1939 when they came to our campus and painted the football field in Punahou colors," said Topolinski, 77. "In '41, someone put up a Roosevelt flag at Punahou and cut the rope on the flagpole."They had to hire a steeplejack to get it down. It just went on from there."Another year, red paint was tossed into Punahou's swimming pool.To tone down acts of vandalism, the two schools established the "Paint Brush Trophy" in 1948, which they vied for 22 times through 1969, when the rivalry ended with the breakup of the old ILH."It was an attempt to make the rivalry stand for something other than vandalism," said Dave Eldredge, who played, coached and taught at Punahou."Since paint brushes were the major thing, we decided to use it for the trophy, he said."Eldredge and Star-Bulletin columnist Ben Wood, who was Roosevelt's quarterback, played in the first "Paint Brush" game in 1948, won by Punahou 13-10.Years later, Eldredge saved the "Paint Brush" from the rubbish heap during an athletic facility cleanup and kept it at home until his recent retirement, when he gave it back to the school.On permanent display is the Roosevelt High football jersey worn by the late John Bellinger, First Hawaiian Bank's chief executive officer, and the Hawaiian Commercial & Businessman's Athletic Association trophy cup awarded to him in 1940 as the ILH's most outstanding player.Another interesting exhibit item is the "Poi Pounder," a trophy established during World War II when St. Louis School and McKinley became rivals while sharing the same campus.St. Louis held classes at McKinley while its campus served as a military hospital.From Geocities/Hawaii:
In the late 1950's and early 1960's, before Hawaii Raceway Park came into existence, they raced stock cars in Honolulu Stadium. It was a multipurpose stadium, used for baseball, football and track and field events.The dirt race track ran around the outside of the football field. The baseball home plate area was in turn three, and the dugouts were open to the race track. Sometimes cars crashed into the dugouts.They ran 1930's vintage Fords and Chevys. The cars were aligned into three divisions:Futurity - no engine modifications
Sportsman - limited engine modifications
Modified - unlimited engine modifications
The events they ran were much like they do today. They started with time trials for each car. Then they ran trophy dashes for each division. Then heat races, semi and main events for each division. One difference was that they used an inverted start, where the slower cars started in front of the faster cars. That made for good action as the faster cars moved their way to the front.Spectators were much closer to the action then they are now days. The seats were directly behind the outside wall. There was a red stripe painted on row 5, and you weren't supposed to sit below the red line. Good thing too, because cars went over the wall at least twice, tearing down the chain link fencing on top of the wall.They had two support vehicles on the infield, a little jeep for pushing stalled cars off the track, and an old wrecker, for towing the more badly damaged cars off the track.The pits were under the stadium seats. You could hear the modified engines roar during other races.Some weekends it rained, so the races turned into mud races. Sometimes they scheduled special mud races, so if it didn't rain, they had to water down the racing surface with garden hoses.Click here to see all the pictures.
Wow. Excellent research, Dave!
Fantastic research Dave, thanks, very interesting, never would have guess Honolulu would have modified stock car races. Very cool
This....is what I love about this site! Absolutely awesome!!