1926 … Aloha Tower was completed; construction begins on the Richards Street YWCA building; Sanford Dole, former president of the Republic of Hawaiʻi, died … and the Honolulu Stadium was completed.
“Thursday afternoon (November 11, 1926,) at 2:30, the University football team plays against the (Schuman’s Townies) team for the football championship of the Territory of Hawaii. The title fight will be the first game to be played in the newly erected Honolulu Stadium. How about winnnig that game?”
“For three years we have won every game which we played. … Are we to lose the first game to be played in the Stadium, as well as the championship of the islands? We must not. We will not. “The Fighting Deans” shall not be outfought. We’ve got to win that game!” (Editorial in Ka Leo O Hawaiʻi, November 10, 1926) UH lost, 14–7.
But let’s step back a bit.
We first need to introduce John Ashman Beaven (born at Oswego, New York on October 31, 1869, son of John Hort and Rebecca (Ashman) Beaven,) a newspaperman from Upstate New York. He arrived in Honolulu in 1910 and became Hawaiʻi’s first sports promoter.
In 1912, he established the Oʻahu Baseball League, O‘ahu Service Athletic League and the Catholic Youth Organization. In 1917, he leased land and built Moʻiliʻili Field on King Street; the baseball teams, as well as the football league played there.
In 1925, Beaven purchased 14-fee simple acres at the ‘ewa/makai corner of King and Isenberg streets and built the Honolulu Stadium (across from Moʻiliʻili Field.). From 1925 to 1939, he was general manager of the stadium. (HawaiiSportsHallOfFame)
Honolulu Stadium was maintained by Honolulu Stadium Ltd, a company Beaven formed on September 9, 1926. It was built, owned and operated by private interests. Five years later the UH bought it from them.
Beginning in 1936, many shareholders donated their stock to the university of Hawaii to build the Scholarship Loan Fund. The University of Hawaii also purchased stock, with Board of Regents authorization. (DLNR)
The Honolulu Stadium opened on November 11, 1926. It served as one of the major recreational outlets for Honolulu; events held at the stadium included a wide spectrum of activities: football, baseball, stock car racing, boxing, reIigious ceremonies, carnivals and concerts. (DLNR)
Hawaiʻi’s first night game was held at the Honolulu Stadium in 1930; the UH Rainbows defeated Hackmen of Neal Blaisdell’s Honolulu Athletic Club (28-0.) (Cisco)
The stadium hosted Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio (who hit a home run out of the park in 1944) and Jesse Owens. Irving Berlin performed in 1945, Elvis Presley performed in 1957, while Billy Graham preached in 1958.
It was the home of the Rainbows of University of Hawaiʻi (1926-1975,) the Hawaiians of the World Football League (1974) and the Hawaiʻi Islanders of the Pacific Coast League (1961 to 1975.)
April 20, 1961, Honolulu Stadium hosted the first game of the new home-team Hawaiʻi Islanders, a minor-league pro baseball franchise of the Pacific Coast League. (The Islanders beat the Vancouver Mounties 4-3.)
On the morning after the UH Rainbows defeated the Willamette Bearcats, 20-6, in the Shrine Game in front of a sold-out Honolulu Stadium crowd, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (1941.) Football was on hold through the 1945 season.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, 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. (Fulton)
The stadium was also the venue for the Poi Bowl (1936-1939,) Pineapple Bowl (1940-1952) and Hula Bowl (1947-1974.)
In 1969, the Hula Bowl’s first sellout crowd watched USC’s Heisman Trophy winning tailback OJ Simpson set a Hula Bowl record with an 88-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. (I was downstairs getting a hot dog at the concession and heard the crowd go wild.)
The stadium sat about 24,000-people; it had only about 80-parking stalls. You parked where you could and walked as far as you needed in order to get to whatever was happening there at the time.
It was made of wood … “It creaked, actually creaked, like it was alive; (it was) kinda spooky,” says Larry Price (star-bulletin)
Its wood construction led to its later moniker; “A somewhat famous example of a termite problem gone out of control is the old Honolulu Stadium, known affectionately as the ‘Termite Palace.’ The stadium was found to be severely termite-damaged”. (hawaii-edu)
In January of 1971, the Stadium Board announced the decision to close the stadium after the 1973 Hula Bowl game.
On April 11, 1974, the legislature passed a supplement budget authorization for the state to purchase the stadium for public recreational use; that year, the stadium property was sold to the State. (DLNR)
The Honolulu Stadium was demolished in 1976, after Aloha Stadium was completed in Halāwa; the former site of the Termite Palace is now a public park (too many changes have been discussed about the Aloha Stadium site, it is not clear what (or when) will happen to that rust bucket).
ALOHA!
AS A YOUNG MAN I HAD THE PLEASURE OF ATTENDING THE RAINBOW GAMES AND THE THRILLING HAWAII ISLANDER BASEBALL GAMES INCLUDING,THE LAST CHAMPIONSHIP GAME AT THE OLD TERMITE PALACE.
IT WAS TRUE!
THE TERMITES OWNED THE PLACE AND YOU COULD SEE SWARMS OF THEM IN THE LIGHTS AS THEY HAZED THE NIGHT SKY WITH THEIR PRESENCE. I REMEMBER PICKING THEM OUT OF MY HAIR AND BRUSHING THEM OFF OF MY WINDBREAKER JACKETS.
AHHHH YES!
I RECALL THE SMELLL OF THE POPCORN, HOT DOGS, AND MOST OF ALL THE AROMA OF THE HOT STEAMING WHITE AND RED CUPS OF S&S SAIMIN! BACK THEN SO IT SEEMED DAMP AND CHILLY
TO US AT THE TIME IN HONOLULU, HAWAII IN THE MID 1970’S. I WAS GOING ON 12 YEARS OF AGE AND REALLY COLD WEATHER HAD NOT EXISTED IN HAWAII.
THE MEMORIES OF THE OLD TERMITE PALACE ARE A PART OF MY LIFE, AND I REMEMBER THE LAST HAWAII ISLANDER PCL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME HELD THERE, AND THE THRILL OF BEING CHAMPIONS!
BUT WE WERE SAD TO REALIZE THAT IT WAS THE LAST GAME AT THE TERMITE PALACE.
I REMEMBER THE LONG SOMBER WALK ALONGSIDE THE TALL WHITE WALLS OF THE BLEACHERS AND I RECALL LOOKING UP AT THE BACK OF THE GRANDSTANDS
SAYING GOODBYE AS WE WALKED OUT IN TO THE DARK NEIGHBORHOOD SEVERAL BLOCKS AWAY WERE MY DAD PARKED HIS AMC HORNET.
I REMEMBER LOOKING BACK AT THE LIT STADIUM AND SEEING THE HAZE OF CLOUDS OF TERMITES SWARMING IN THE LIGHTS AND NIGHT SKY.
WHEN THEY ANNOUNCED THE DEMOLITION OF THE TERMITE PALACE, I RECALL MY DAD TAKING ME TO WATCH AS THE BULL DOZERS WERE RAKING THE OLD WOODEN STRUCTURE IN TO HEAPS
OF BROKEN UP WOOD AND METAL ELECTRICAL CONDUIT.
MY DAD HAD BEEN IN HONOLULU, SINCE THE EARLY 1950’S AND I COULD TELL THAT THE STADIUM WAS A PART OF HIM AS IT WAS A PART OF ME. WE BOTH FELT SAD THAT DAY.
THEN WE WENT TO KAPAHULU TO HAVE SOME GRINDS AT THE RAINBOW DRIVE IN…
THE NEXT SEASON OF THE HAWAII ISLANDERS WAS AT THE NEW ALOHA STADIUM IN NEARBY AIEA. WE USED TO LIVE IN CATLIN PARK AND AS KIDS WE RODE OUR BIKES UP SALT LAKE BLVD. TO WATCH THE CONSTRUCTION OVER THE YEARS OF THE NEW ALOHA STADIUM. AFTER YEARS OF CONTROVERSY AND EVEN A KAPU CURSE!
THE STADIUM WAS COMPLETED.
MY FATHER SECURED SEASON TICKETS!
AND WE WERE THRILLED TO SEE THE HUGE METAL STADIUM OPEN TO THE PUBLIC WITH ALL OF THOSE BRIGHT ORANGE SEATS.
AND NO CLOUDS OF TERMITES… BUT WE STILL GOT OUR FIX OF S&S SAIMIN WITH SOYU AND PLENTY OF EXTRA BLACK PEPPA!
MO-BETTA!
I STILL HAVE A SOUVENIR AUTOGRAPHED HAWAII ISLANDER BASEBALL,
AND A MINI HAWAII ISLANDER PCL CHAMPIONSHIP PENNANT.
BUT MOST OF ALL THE FOND MEMORIES OF THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING THERE AT THE HONOLULU STADIUM AS WE NEW IT
“THE TERMITE PALACE ”
I CAN STILL HEAR THE ROAR OF THE CROWDS, THE RUMBLE OF STOMPING FEET AND THE CREAKING WOOD SOUND OF THE STANDS, AND THE SMELL OF THE POP CORN, HOT DOGS, AND
S&S SAIMIN! BUT I CAN NEVER FORGET THE LAST THING THAT I REMEMBER SEEING AT THE OLD PLACE WAS THE CLOUDS OF SWARMING TERMITES IN THE LIGHTS OF THE HONOLULU NIGHT SKY.
THANKS FOR READING.
MAHALO!
I lived within walking distance of Termite Palace from 1970-1973. Although I now live on the Mainland and travel the world mostly to see Baseball— nothing will ever take the place in my mind and heart that Termite Palace did…I miss the old lady— I do go to the park that the placque is in but nowhere near the same.
Mahalo for talking story —- Aloha