Hawaii football coaches witness Aloha Stadium section fall

AIEA, Hawaii — A few hundred yards from where June Jones helped turn Timmy Chang into a household name in college football, the former and current Hawaii football coaches strapped on hard hats, safety vests and other protective equipment to watch a piece of their shared history come down.

With a sudden metallic groan and a crash that lasted mere seconds, the second of four upper-level sideline quadrants tumbled backward outside the 51-year-old Aloha Stadium bowl. Glass bulbs ejected dramatically from their light housing, but everything landed in a controlled heap.

Developer team Aloha Halawa District Partners surprised many when it demolished the first quadrant last week in something of a dry run; overhead and ground-level video clips were widely shared on social media, with some viewers suspicious that they were artificial intelligence fakes. This time, VIPs like Chang, Jones and UH President Wendy Hensel were among the several dozen on hand to watch the encore with their own eyes from a safe distance.

[Note: See below for more photos of Thursday’s section demolition of Aloha Stadium.]

There was no sadness in that moment for Chang, who played in Halawa from 2000 to 2004 and at one point owned the NCAA career passing yardage record operating Jones’ prolific run-and-shoot offense.

“It’s really a turning of the page on an era and a time in Hawaii where there’s so much great memories,” Chang told Spectrum News. “I’m standing next to my mentor, coach June Jones.

“What I’m excited for is for the new memories that will come for the state and the next generations. And I can’t be happier.”

Jones led UH to its unbeaten 2007 regular season with Colt Brennan at the controls. The lopsided Sugar Bowl loss to Georgia would be the capstone to his nine-year Manoa career as he moved on to Southern Methodist.

He was a little reluctant to reminisce, but allowed, “I don’t think of it often, although today I (was) thinking of the Washington game, scoring a touchdown in the east end zone down here to win after being down for so long (21-0 to start the game). And then, of course, the way the internet is now, people send stuff with old games all the time.”

Jones said he was part of early talks for a replacement to Aloha Stadium as far back as 25 years ago, when concerns were raised that the state could lose the NFL’s Pro Bowl, international soccer and other events without an upgrade. The talk then was for a similarly sized, 50,000-seat venue.

“Glad to see finally; that it’s taking place,” Jones said. “I’m just glad that something’s happening now that will benefit the school.”

Former Hawaii football coach June Jones, in white hard hat, waited by a barrier for the demolition of a section of Aloha Stadium behind him. (Spectrum News/Brian McInnis)

AHDP and the state’s New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District team have pegged March 2029 for the completion of a new 31,000-seat stadium. It is the planned centerpiece of a mixed-use district with commercial and residential components across a 98-acre footprint.

The first two sections to fall included the Aloha Stadium press box and loge boxes. Hawaiian Dredging Co. had already removed two of the distinctive spiral ramps and elevated bridges between sections. Two more sideline quadrants will come down over the next several weeks, Stanford Carr, president of Stanford Carr Development and the de facto leader of AHDP, told Spectrum News.

AHDP plans to keep the concrete foundations of the North and South end zones to save about $90 million toward the new stadium, Carr has said. The light housing atop those curved seating sections must come down before rollovers can be executed.

“Progress,” Carr said as to what the removals thus far represented. “A second step forward to take down the old stadium.”

Meanwhile, he said, “we just completed 60% of the schematic drawings for the new stadium that’s been submitted to the state for review and comment, and then we will continue to finish up, refine the plans through 100% schematics, and then roll into design and development.”

Chang’s right-hand man, associate head coach Chris Brown, played on the same UH teams in the 2000s.

Thursday was a bittersweet for the former hard-hitting linebacker.

“People don’t realize the relationships that we have today, a lot of it was because of that field,” Brown said. “A lot of guys that we are friends with, and brothers with, not just as a teammate, but (playing) against each other. We ended up becoming friends, just from that field alone. A great time for our parents, our families, to be able to watch us play. And it was a great place to bring everybody together, and to see it go down, man, it was sad.”

But Brown, who has taken a key role in UH recruiting, said the dramatic video would be a tremendous recruiting tool.

Brown pointed over to interim stadium manager Michael Yadao, who was in the process of shaking hands with others wearing fluorescent yellow and orange vests behind a safety barrier.

“(Yadao) is very open to bringing recruits in and showing them the plans, you know, and seeing what’s the future hold,” Brown said. “Especially for our younger guys that are coming in, the freshmen that are going to come in and be a part of that thing.”

The Aloha Stadium upper section on the makai sideline, sections Q through L, just before Aloha Halawa District Partners brought it down on Thursday. (Spectrum News/Brian McInnis)