Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Barefoot Football

“Barefoot football occupied a special niche in Hawaiian sports from 1924 through the Depression and World War II years, but has been out of style since the early ‘50s – a memory to oldtimers and unbelievable in the minds of late-comers to the Islands.”

“The first barefoot football league was ·organized in 1924 by AK Vierra to fill a need of young men not playing in high school or with the senior club teams which provided competition for the University of Hawaii.”

“It was called the Spalding League and Vierra had the insight to draw teams from the various neighborhoods – Kalihi, Kakaako, Palama, Pawaa, Pauoa and Liliha – assuring bitter rivalry and fierce support from the fans.”  (Gee, SB, Oct 28, 1975)

“Thousands of young men, ranging in age from 15 to 30 on O‘ahu, Maui, Hawai‘i and Kauai, participated in hundreds of barefoot football leagues … [it was] the ‘fastest, wildest, scrappiest brand of football in the United States.’” (Soboleski, TGI, May 10, 2020)

“[T]he nucleus of that Kalihi Thundering Herd were generally boys, young men, that were from the Kalihi-Waena area, although they did attract players from Kalihi-Kai. Some from Kalihi-Uka. I don’t think anybody from Fern Park was on the Thundering Herd team.”

“We did have a couple from the Palama area before Palama had their own team. We had a very good player there named Bill Flazer. Tall, skinny fellow. He was a very good punter. It was the barefoot leagues. They played barefoot, the leagues.” (Adolph ‘Duffie’ [rhymes with ‘Goofy’] Mendonca, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

Standard equipment consisted of a jersey and sailor-moku pants – no head gear, no shoulder pads. The weight limit was 150 pounds. Shoes, of course, were prohibited.”  (Gee, SB, Oct 28, 1975)

“There was a senior league, they was called Kalihi Thundering Herd. They were the 150 pounds. And I’ m pretty sure they had that weight limit, too. If you couldn’t make ‘em, you was disqualified for that game, that’ s all.” (Albert O Adams, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“The shoeless game achieved such wide popularity that weight divisions were established for the smaller players, with limits of 120, 130 and 140 pounds. A barrel weight league for the 175-pounders also was formed.”  (Gee, SB, Oct 28, 1975)

The Kalihi Thundering Herd was the senior team. … “And Benny Waimau was the coach [of the seniors]. … Yeah, he was a good coach. Boy, he’d make them pull the car right around the block. Fernandez [Park].”

“That old Essex car–he would get maybe about couple guys, just pull ‘em. Pull that car right around the block. I’d say it’s good – about pretty close to quarter mile.” (Albert O Adams, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“They had a clinic, and this Knute Rockne came down. The Kalihi club sent Benny Waimau to the clinic with other good coaches, you know, coaches coaching high school. I guess maybe Otto Klum was there, too. He used to coach University of Hawaii.”

“What we heard afterwards [was] that Knute Rockne asked the coaches some questions, you know, and then they would answer. Then, Benny Waimau asked him a question, and he looked at Benny, and he told [asked] Benny what team he was coaching.”

“And Benny said, ‘Oh, the barefoot Kalihi Thundering Herd … He [Knute Rockne] said, .. Well, you better get in something bigger

than that … Because he [Benny] was really a good coach.” (Albert O Adams, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“[W]e had this guy, Tommy Beck, he lived right up there. He used to work in Pearl Harbor – he had the loot that time, he had the money. You know when you work that kind place, you get the money, eh? He would sponsor – he would buy the jerseys for the Thundering Herd. I think that time maybe the jerseys only cost two, three dollars one, I think. Good jerseys.” (Peter Martin, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“One time we had a fight in the [Honolulu] stadium. … So, they want to throw us out of the league. The guy was running this Spalding League, so he told them guys …”

“‘Any time you throw out this Kalihi Thundering Herd, there will be no more barefoot league.’  Because they figure that we the one draw the crowd and all that. I don’t know why they blame us because most time, it’s the Kakaako guys troublemakers.”  (Peter Martin, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

“I played one year. And then I helped Benny Waimau, and Julian Judd and them to help coach the team after that. Because when I played for McKinley, I couldn’t play for the Kalihi Thundering Herd.”

“Because the first time they started they was under, I think, the Wilson Sporting Goods sponsored that. Till after that, then they came under Spalding. Then they formed the Spalding League. The Spalding League was connected with E.O. Hall & Son.” (Alexander Beck, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History)

The barefoot football was also on the neighbor  islands, “Barefoot football which proved so popular in Hilo last year will be continued again this coming grid season … Plans have already been made for a ‘barefoot’ game between the best team on this islands and the best on Maui.” (Hilo Tribune Hearld, Aug 16, 1927)

“[I]n this little bull session a few days ago, and quite an interesting discussion it was until one soldier boy, in reference to the not-too-bright football situation in Hilo, remarked: ‘We’ve got to have real football here this season. What good at all is barefoot foot going to do anybody the way they play it here?’”

“… well, Toma, you could’ve seen the blood in my eyes at 50 paces when I realize the full implication of that crack … in my rage, I could say no more that to let him know that ‘barefoot football is as big to us here in Hilo as Notre Dame football is to South Bend fans.’”

“‘[N]ow that you’re a fighting man on Uncle Sames team, I know that you realize more than ever before, what our little leagues have meant and will continue to mean to our boys … you’ve always championed this anyway …’”

‘”Our ‘senseless’ football has developed its quota of fine men for the armed forces, just as Notre Dame and California and Michigan and Yale teams have turned in theirs … the harder the officials find it to form a league this season, the more solid is our proof that we have contributed much toward helping Uncle Sam score his winning touchdown.”

“[M]any of our boys are today faced with the toughest battle of their lives, and you can bet your last bit if K-ration, Toma, that they are using football strategy very handily under fire from time to time … yep, Toma, the same football strategy that they would have been otherwise ignorant of it weren’t for the barefoot football they played back home.”

“… barefoot football has been the best Hilo has been able to offer, but it offered the same fundamental benefits as football of the intercollegiate calibre … it is, most important of all, American football.” (Bert Nakaji, Hilo Tribune Herald, Aug 25, 1944)

Then, “With the slow demise of barefoot football leagues, the likes of which there has been only one here for several years past, the advent of the Pop Warner program is bound to be just the shot in the arm the sport in general has needed …”

“… it’ll be good for the kids, just as Midget and little league and Colt and Pony baseball have been, and it’ll be good for prepskol football . . . on these Pop Warner teams will be the future stars of the Big Island Interscholastic Federation …” (Nakaji, HTH, Dec 22, 1963)

@old.hawaii

The Hawaii Barefoot Football League emerged in the mid-1920s with approximately 100 different teams across the islands. . In the video, it shows a match between the Palama Settlement ( plain colored shirts) team and an unidentified opponents. . Bill Flazer one of the most well known punters for the Palama Settlement team. (he’s shown in the beginning of the video) . #hawaii #hawaiian #kanaka #hawaiitiktok #hawaiiantiktok #fyphawaii #808viral #palamasettlment #footballtiktok #football #barefootfootball #oldhawaii #kalihi #fyp #foryoupage #foryourpage #viralhawaii #foryoupageofficiall #foru #4u #fypage #virall #viraltiktok #viralvideos #viral_video #hawaiifootball

♬ original sound – Panaewa

© 2025 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lanai City Schools

The schools in Pālāwai, Kō‘ele, and Lānai City underwent changes in name and location. The schools had their start around 1904 when Charles Gay started Pālāwai School, a one-room schoolhouse for his own children and children of ranch employees. (UHM Center for Oral History)

The Pālāwai School was built near the lower end of Keaaku Gulch where it opens into Pālāwai basin, about two miles south of Kō‘ele. The school was built like a house and had one classroom.  (The Pālāwai School building had been moved three times.)

Pālāwai was chosen for the location of the school because of its central location; students came from Kō‘ele, Malauea, and Waiapa‘a.  (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612)

Violet Gay was the eighth of eleven children born to Charles Gay and Louisa Kala Gay; some of her sibling went to school on O‘ahu. As she notes, “there were five of us that stayed on Lanai and went to [Pālāwai] School.”

“My oldest sister, Amelia, is Mrs. Dickson. And they all came to Punahou, you know. My grandmother put them all in Punahou, see. And they were boarders up at Punahou.”

“Then when she [Amelia] left, she came back to Lanai, that’s when they started the school. Down Palawai, started a school. And I was six years old when I went to the school.”

“About twelve or fifteen children, I think, went to that school. And we walked all the way from Ko’ele, you know, where Kahonu is, past Kahonu down there to Palawai.”  (Violet Keahikoe Gay, UHM Center for Oral History)

“It was a one-room schoolhouse, a short walk from our home. And they put me in school so that we could have fifteen children in order to get a schoolteacher. The schoolteacher lived with us because there was no other place for her to stay.”

“Well, it was a little white house with several windows around it and inside we had these desks and blackboards on the walls, the back wall with no windows. … We were put in rows of desks by age, and the teacher would go row by row teaching. Each row, just a different subject.”

“And we had two little outhouses (laughs) away from the school. One for boys and one for girls. … There was a flagpole out in front. … We put the flag up every morning and learned the Pledge of Allegiance. And then we’d march into class . And that’s about all I remember of that.” (Jean Forbes Adams, UHM Center for Oral History)

Sometime about 1920-22, the Pālāwai School was moved to Kō‘ele, and set up at a site near where the 7th green of the Cavendish Golf Course is today.  (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612) It then became generally known as Kō‘ele School.

In 1922 the school became part of the public school system of the Territory of Hawaii. The Kō‘ele School ceased functioning as a classroom in 1927, when the two-room Kō‘ele Grammar School was built a short distance away. (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612)

Around 1927, with the construction of the new Kō‘ele Grammar School, the Pālāwai/Kō‘ele) School was moved to the Kō‘ele Ranch Camp and became a residence.  The building underwent numerous alterations since the time it was a one room school house, including a kitchen addition, bathroom, and the partitioning of the original single class room.  (Pālāwai School, HABS HI-612)

The Kō‘ele Grammar School was a single-story, gable roof, wood building with an 8′ wide lanai along the front long side of the building.  The interior of the main portion of the Kō‘ele Grammar School is divided into two 24’ x 26’ classrooms by a partition wall with a doorway (no door).

“When I was ready for the sixth grade [in 1927] we went over to the [Ko’ele Grammar] School [located near the present Cavendish Golf Course clubhouse], which was about another half mile away.”

The building was financed by the County of Maui. It was built about a half mile from the Kō‘ele Ranch Camp, to the south, across Iwiole Gulch on the site of what would become the Cavendish Golf Course.  Students from Kō‘ele Ranch and from Lānai City attended. Eighth grade graduation ceremonies from Kō‘ele Grammar School were held at the Lanai Theater in Lānai City.

“I think there were six of us [in 1928]. And it was the first class to graduate from [Ko‘ele Grammar] School, so we had a big ceremony down at the one and only theater. We had chairs set up on the platform … we had these lovely leis, leis you don’t often see anymore.” (Jean Forbes Adams, UHM Center for Oral History)

In September 1928, the people of Lanai City petitioned the Maui County board of supervisors to have the school’s name changed to Lanai City School.

By the mid-1930s, school children of Hawaiian Pineapple Co. (HAPCo) employees had expanded public school enrollment on Lanai to such a degree that additional classes were held in the Lanai Japanese School and in the HAPCo plantation gymnasium.

By about 1937, “There were two buildings and the smaller building had two classes and the other building must have had four classes. … And new teachers were brought in, they had to build a cottage for these new teachers. Because prior to that, the teacher at [the old] Ko‘ele School stayed with us.”

“At the Ko‘ele [Grammar] School, by the golf course. When we’d go to school, we had to make a garden. We had a project. We’d go out and make our garden and plant vegetables.” (Jean Forbes Adams, UHM Center for Oral History)

“[W]hen we used to be naughty, we had to go pull weeds. And during our Ko‘ele [Grammar] School days – not the old cottage, maybe we were too young, but the other school – if you were naughty or were to be punished, we had to go pull weeds, you know. And then we always took turns to clean the rooms. Young as we were, we used to mop.”  (Warren Nishimoto, UHM Center for Oral History)

“[M]ost of the kids, from sixth grade into seventh grade, most of the kids would leave. The ones that (the family) could afford it, their parents either send them to Lahainaluna (in Maui), Punahou (or) Kamehameha School in Honolulu. That’s about it. We might lose maybe five or six (children per school year).”  (Charlotte Richardson Holsomback, UHM Center for Oral History)

“I was pau with school after the sixth grade. … most of them [the girls] quit after the sixth grade. However, if there were older sisters who could take care of the house, sometimes a girl could go on to intermediate school.”  (Tama Teramoto Nishimura, UHM Center for Oral History)

In January 1938, the Lānai High and Elementary School was opened at its present location on Fraser Avenue. The buildings of the Kō‘ele Grammar School complex were moved, in sections, to this new high school site.

During the 1970s the Kō‘ele Grammar School, on its second site at the high school campus near 7th and Fraser Avenues, was used as a meeting hall for the Lanai City chapter of the Boy Scouts of America.

© 2025 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Education in Hawaiʻi

Before the foreigners arrived, Hawaiians had a vocational learning system, where everyone was taught a certain skill by the kahuna.  Skills taught included canoe builder, medicine men, genealogists, navigators, farmers, house builders and priests.

The arrival of the first company of American missionaries in Hawaiʻi in 1820 marked the beginning of Hawaiʻiʻi’s phenomenal rise to literacy. The missionaries were the teachers and the chiefs became proponents for education and edicts were enacted by the King and the council of chiefs to stimulate the people to reading and writing.

By 1831, in just eleven years from the first arrival of the missionaries, Hawaiians had built 1,103 schoolhouses. This covered every district throughout the eight major islands and serviced an estimated 52,882 students.  (Laimana)

The proliferation of schoolhouses was augmented by the printing of 140,000 copies of the pīʻāpā (elementary Hawaiian spelling book) by 1829 and the staffing of the schools with 1,000-plus Hawaiian teachers.  (Laimana)

The word pīʻāpā is said to have been derived from the method of teaching Hawaiians to begin the alphabet “b, a, ba.” The Hawaiians pronounced “b” like “p” and said “pī ʻā pā.”  (Pukui)

In 1831, Lahainaluna Seminary, started by missionary Lorrin Andrews, was created in Maui to be a school for teachers and preachers so that they could teach on the islands. The islands’ first newspaper, Ka Lama Hawaii, was printed at this school.

Hilo Boarding School opened in 1836, built by missionary David Lyman, a missionary. Eight boys lived there the first year. This school was so successful a girls’ boarding school was created in 1838.

Oʻahu’s first school was called the Chiefs’ Children’s School (Royal School.)  The cornerstone of the original school was laid on June 28, 1839 in the area of the old barracks of ʻIolani Palace (at about the site of the present State Capitol of Hawaiʻi.)

The school was created by King Kamehameha III, and at his request was run by missionaries Mr. and Mrs. Amos S. Cooke; the main goal of this school was to groom the next generation of the highest ranking chief’s children of the realm and secure their positions for Hawaiʻi’s Kingdom.

The Chiefs’ Children’s School was unique because for the first time Aliʻi children were brought together in a group to be taught, ostensibly, about the ways of governance.  The School also acted as another important unifying force among the ruling elite, instilling in their children common principles, attitudes and values, as well as a shared vision.

Kamehameha III called for a highly-organized educational system; the Constitution of 1840 helped Hawaiʻi public schools become reorganized.

William Richards, a missionary, helped start the reorganization, and was later replaced by missionary Richard Armstrong.  Richard Armstrong is known as the “the father of American education in Hawaiʻi.”

“Statute for the Regulation of Schools” passed by the King and chiefs on October 15, 1840. Its preamble stated, “The basis on which the Kingdom rests is wisdom and knowledge. Peace and prosperity cannot prevail in the land, unless the people are taught in letters and in that which constitutes prosperity. If the children are not taught, ignorance must be perpetual, and children of the chiefs cannot prosper, nor any other children”.

The creation of the Common Schools (where the 3 Rs were taught) marks the beginning of the government’s involvement in education in Hawaiʻi.  At first, the schools were no more than grass huts.

Armstrong helped bring better textbooks, qualified teachers and better school buildings.  Students were taught in Hawaiian how to read, write, math, geography, singing and to be “God-fearing” citizens. (By 1863, three years after Armstrong’s death, the missionaries stopped being a part of Hawaiʻi’s education system.)

The 1840 educational law mandated compulsory attendance for children ages four to fourteen. Any village that had fifteen or more school-age children was required to provide a school for their students.

Oʻahu College, later named Punahou School, was founded in 1841 on land given to missionary Hiram Bingham by Boki (at the request of Kaʻahumanu.)  Bingham gave the land to the mission for the school.

By 1832, the literacy rate of Hawaiians (at the time was 78 percent) had surpassed that of Americans on the continent. The literacy rate of the adult Hawaiian population skyrocketed from near zero in 1820 to a conservative estimate of 91 percent – and perhaps as high as 95 percent – by 1834. (Laimana)

From 1820 to 1832, in which Hawaiian literacy grew by 91 percent, the literacy rate on the US continent grew by only 6 percent and did not exceed the 90 percent level until 1902 – three hundred years after the first settlers landed in Jamestown. By way of comparison, it is significant that overall European literacy rates in 1850 had not risen much above 50 percent. (Laimana)

The government-sponsored education system in Hawaiʻi is the longest running public school system west of the Mississippi River.  To this day, Hawaiʻi is the only state to have a completely-centralized State public school system.

For more on this, click the link: Education in Hawaii.

© 2025 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen is the Founding Father of modern China, the Republic of China (Nationalist China) and the forerunner of democratic revolution in the People’s Republic of China.

As part of a philosophy to make China a free, prosperous, and powerful nation Sun Yat-sen adopted “Three Principles of the People:” “Mínzú, Mínquán, Mínshēng“ (People’s Nationalism, People’s Democracy, People’s Livelihood.)

The Qing Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Qing or Great Qing, was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917.

After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution on October 10, 1911, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen (November 12, 1866 –March 12, 1925) was elected Provisional President and founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of China.

Sun Yat-sen was born to an ordinary farmer’s family in Cuiheng Village, Xiangshan, the South China province of Guangdong.

In 1879, then 13 years of age, he journeyed to Hawaiʻi to join his older brother, Sun Mei, a successful rice farmer, rancher and merchant.  He entered ʻIolani at age 14.  (ʻIolani)

In Sun Yat-sen’s four years in Hawai’i (1879-1883), he is said to have attended three Christian educational institutions: ʻIolani College, St Louis College and Oʻahu College (Punahou School.)  Then, he was called Tai Cheong or Tai Chu.

His three years at ʻIolani are well authenticated. Whether he ever attended St Louis cannot be substantiated by school records, but such a possibility exists. As for Oʻahu College, there is evidence to support the claim, though the time he spent there is not altogether clear.  (Soong)

“During his years at ʻIolani and Punahou, he was exposed to Western culture, was strongly influenced by it, and in his young mind, the seeds of Western democracy were planted.” (Lum, ʻIolani)  It also “led him to want more western education – more than that required to assist in his brother’s business.”  (Soong)

In 1883, Sun registered in the Punahou Preparatory School, one of the fifty children who studied in the two classrooms upstairs in the school building.  He was listed as Tai Chu, he was one of three Chinese students, the others being Chung Lee and Hong Tong.

Sun was also influenced by the Anglican and Protestant Christian religious teachings he received; he was later baptized.

He came to Hawaiʻi on six different occasions, initially for schooling and to support his brother’s businesses on Maui.  Later, his trips were geared to gain support for revolutionizing China and fundraising for that end.

On his third trip in Hawaiʻi (on November 24, 1894) Sun established the Hsing Chung Hui (Revive China Society,) his first revolutionary society. Among its founders were many Christians, one of them being Chung Kun Ai, his fellow student at ʻIolani (and later founder of City Mill.)

Shortly after, in January 1895, Dr Sun left Hawaiʻi and returned to China to initiate his revolutionary activities in earnest.  The funding of the First Canton Uprising mainly came from the Chinese in Hawaiʻi (that first effort failed.)

On another visit to Hawaiʻi (in 1903,) Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui into Chung Hua Ke Min Jun (The Chinese Revolutionary Army) in Hilo.

In 1905, in Tokyo, Sun reorganized the Hsing Chung Hui and other organizations into a political party called the Tung Meng Hui.
Likewise, the Chinese Revolutionary Army was reorganized and all of its members Tung Meng Hui members.

This party spread all over China and rallied all the revolutionists under its wings.  He then made his last visit to Hawaiʻi to form the Hawaiʻi Chapter of Tung Meng Hui.

From 1894 to 1911, Sun traveled around the globe advocating revolution and soliciting funds for the cause. At first, he concentrated on China, but his continued need for money forced him elsewhere. Southeast Asia, Japan, Hawaii, Canada, the United States, and Europe all became familiar during his endless quest.  (Damon)

The revolutionary movement in China grew stronger and stronger. Tung Meng Hui members staged many armed uprisings, culminating in the October 10, 1911 Wuhan (Wuchang) Uprising which succeeded in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty and established the Republic of China.

That date is now celebrated annually as the Republic of China’s national day, also known as the “Double Ten Day”. On December 29, 1911, Sun Yat-sen was elected president and on January 1, 1912, he was officially inaugurated.  After Sun’s death on March 12, 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT.)

The Republic of China governed mainland China until 1949; in that year, during the Chinese Civil War, the communists captured Beijing and later Nanjing. The communist-party-led People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949.

Originally based in mainland China, Chiang Kai-shek and a few hundred thousand Republic of China troops and two million refugees, fled from mainland China to Taiwan (formerly known as “Formosa.”)

On December 7, 1949 Chiang proclaimed Taipei, Taiwan, the temporary capital of the Republic of China and it now governs the island of Taiwan.  Sun Yat-sen is one of the few Chinese revolutionary figures revered in both the People’s Republic of China (mainland) and Republic of China (Taiwan.)

Hawaiʻi and its people played an important role in the life of Sun Yat-sen as well as in his revolutionary activities. His first revolutionary organization was formed in Hawaiʻi, it developed into the political party directly responsible for the collapse of the Manchus.

Another Hawaiʻi tie for Sun relates to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 that blocked Chinese travel to the US.

In March 1904, while residing in Kula, Maui, Sun Yat-sen obtained a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth, issued by the Territory of Hawaiʻi, stating that “he was born in the Hawaiian Islands on the 24th day of November, A.D. 1870.”

He used it to travel to the continent; then, when it was no longer needed, he renounced it.

Sun Yat-sen apparently felt at home in Hawaiʻi.  “This is my Hawai‘i … here I was brought up and educated, and it was here that I came to know what modern, civilized governments are like and what they mean.”  (Sun Yat-sen, 1910)

© 2025 Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Oregon Ducks

Before Oregon was the 33rd state admitted to the United States in 1859, it was known as the Oregon Territory, and before that, the Oregon Country.  On February 14, 1859, Congress granted Oregon statehood.

Edwin Battistella, a professor of English at Southern Oregon University says the name Oregon dates back to a written record of at least 1765, credited to a British soldier named Major Robert Rogers.

“He was a colonial soldier in 1765 who wrote up a proposal to King George III to fund an expedition to find the northwest passage by way of the river the Indians call Ouragon,” Battistella said.  King George III denied that request.   “For now, we can safely say that the name originated from Major Robert Rogers’ rendering of a Native word for the water route to the Pacific.” (KGW)

The origin is unknown. It may have come from the French word Ouragan (which means Hurricane) and was a former name of the Columbia River.

Other say the word “Oregon” is derived from a Shoshoni Indian expression meaning, The River of the West, originating from the two Shoshoni words “Ogwa,” River and “Pe-on,” West, or “Ogwa Pe-on.” (Rees)  That river as we know it today is the Columbia River.

In the word “Ogwa” the syllable “Og” means undulations and is the basis of such words as “river,” “snake,” “salmon,” or anything having a wavy motion. The sound “Pah” means water. Therefore, a river is undulating water. “Pe-on” is contracted from the two syllables, “Pe-ah,” big and “Pah,” water or Big Water meaning the Pacific Ocean. (Rees)

The use of the word webfoot associated with Oregon has a long history.  Webfoot was first used by Californians to express their satirical dislike of the Oregonian and his rainy county and was brought to Oregon by California miners settling in or traveling through the territory during the various gold rushes of the late 1850s into the Pacific Northwest.

“In fact, it seems quite probable that webfoot began as a derisive epithet in California during the gold rush of 1848-1849. The Oregonians were among the first to reach the California gold fields, were not beloved by the Californians.”

“The first discovered printed usage in California pf the word webfoot in the sense of Oregon or Oregonian is in the San Francico Sun on May 19, 1853. The writer of the item requested that ‘if you have any web-foot friends bound this way, dissuade them from putting in here, as nothing in the way of supplies can be obtained but water.’”  (Mills)

In describing a coming football game between the University of Oregon and Pacific University, the Eugene Guard noted, “The grounds will be somewhat muddy tomorrow, but that never stops an enthusiastic football player. In fact Webfoot boys would rather play on a muddy field than one that is dry and solid.” (Eugene Guard, Nov 28, 1894)

Webfoot caught on and ‘Webfoot State’ became a nickname for the State of Oregon.   When the University of Oregon began searching for an athletic nickname in the late 1800s, the name “Webfoots” was the obvious choice.  (White) By 1907 statewide sentiment had turned sour toward the term Webfoot, and the 1907 yearbook would adopt the name “The Beaver”.

Through the first two decades of the 20th century, there remained no officially sanctioned mascot for the university. Even as the use of mascots became commonplace at universities around the country, the Oregon teams that went to the Rose Bowl twice in four years after the 1916 and 1919 seasons traveled to Pasadena without one of their own to cheer them on. (University of Oregon)

The word “Web-foot” made its reappearance in print in January 1922 thanks to Oregon Daily Emerald reporter Ep Hoyt, who bestowed the name upon the Oregon Agricultural College football team during its postseason tour of Hawai‘i. (Oregon Alumni)

Oregon’s football team  played two games in Hawai‘i – the Star Bulletin stated in a headline, “Webfooters Shut Out Pearl Harbor Navy Team”. The accompanying articles stated, “The Navy put up a good brand of football but the webfooters put up a brand that was better.” (Star Bulletin, Jan 3, 1922) Final score 35 to 0.

The Oregon Webfoots previously beat the University of Hawai‘i 47 to 0. Otto Klum was the new football coach at University of Hawai‘i that year – he had arrived from Portland a couple months before the Oregon game. (Oregonian, Sept 10, 1921)

Later that year, an Emerald editorial argued for the necessity of adopting a team name for University of Oregon sports teams and solicited names from readers.

Professor WG Thatcher argued in favor of Pioneers, while other suggestions included Condors, Eagles, Hawks, Vultures, Bulls, Wild Cats, and Fighting Drakes. Another professor, Jim Gilbert, favored Skinners in tribute to the founder of Eugene. (University of Oregon)

The Chamber of Commerce later stepped in and noted, “Oregon’s misnomer, ‘Webfoot State’ will be discarded”, stating, “that the term ‘webfoot state’ is poor advertising for the state, leading many eastern people to believe that Oregon is a swampy country, deluged by rain winter and summer.” (The Bulletin, Nov 17, 1923)

The debate surrounding the adoption of an official mascot raged for five years from 1922 to 1926.  On November 6, 1926, the Eugene Guard and Oregon Daily Emerald jointly announced a new naming contest for the University of Oregon’s sports teams.

Webfoots and Ducks were viewed as “inadequate names” that impute “the harmlessness of doves” on the school’s squads. But the newspaper contest did not end the debate. It wouldn’t be until 1932 that students and alumni voted to confirm Webfoots as the official school mascot. (University of Oregon)

Even after Webfoots was officially adopted by the school in 1926, according to Douglas Card in “The Webfooted Ducks,” “Sportswriters gradually shortened the moniker to Ducks.” (Caputo)

Oregon’s first live mascot had surfaced in the 1920s when “Puddles,” a resident duck of the nearby Millrace, was escorted to football and basketball games by his fraternity-house neighbors.

Puddles and his various offspring were part of the Duck sports scene until the early 1940s when repeated complaints from the Humane Society finally sucked the fun out of bringing a live duck to games. (University of Oregon)

However, Puddles’ memory was preserved in 1947 when Oregon’s first athletic director, Leo Harris, struck a handshake arrangement with Walt Disney.  Donald Duck’s likeness could serve as the mascot, as long as it was done in good taste.

The unique deal stood for 20 years, with Walt Disney Productions providing several versions of the duck for Oregon’s use, until the cartoonist’s death in 1966. That’s when both parties realized no formal contract existed granting the University the right to Donald’s image. (University of Oregon) They later formalized the association.

Another Hawai‘i connection, at least for me … when we were kids, our family hosted a couple of the Oregon Duck women’s swim team, when they came to the Islands for UH swim meets.

© 2025 Ho‘okuleana LLC