Friday, June 09, 2023

Al Michaels remembers Hawaii

What follows are the stuff for the Hawaii sports archives — Michaels’ time in Hawaii, how things seemed to come full circle, his recollection of a flamboyant Islanders pitcher and his initial meeting of President Barack Obama.


“I went over there in ’68. When Jack brought me in and what happened was he had an announcer Marty Chase … and Marty’s reserve unit (Hawaii National Guard at Schofield) was called up.

“I had flown over to Honolulu and met with Jack Quinn, in 1968, early in February.

“It was arranged by a mutual friend named Frank Valenti. Frank set me up and I flew over and met with Jack in the bowels of Termite Palace. And I left him a tape, reel-to-reel tape. I had gone to Arizona State. When I went to Arizona State and I’m announcing games on the campus station. … And among the players I’m talking about on the tape are Sal Bando, Rick Monday and a new freshman coming up, Reggie Jackson. (All future World Series winners.)

“I’m in school with all those guys at the same time and that’s on the tape.

“So Jack says if anything happens, blah, blah, blah, we’ll keep you in mind. And sure enough on the eve of the season or shortly after the season had started, I got a call from Jack. ‘Hey listen, can you come over and do a few games’ because he didn’t know what Marty’s situation was going to be down the line.

“He said, ‘How soon can you be here.’ I said, ‘Next plane.’”

“So (I) flew over, got on the air and wound up doing that whole season, and University of Hawaii football and basketball, and then all ILH football and basketball games. And I’m on television twice a day, that time was KITV, with Chuck Henry and Ken Kashiwahara.”

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