Transferring from St. Louis High School to Punahou in mid-term of his sophomore year, Red was ineligible to play either ILH baseball or football in 1925. So he immediately became manager of Punahou’s 1925 baseball team and then starred as a regular shortstop in his junior and senior years. He is particularly remembered for practically single-handedly beating the 1927 championship St. Louis team, hitting three home runs and playing a spectacular game at shortstop.This article appears as originally published in the Summer 1982 issue of the Punahou Bulletin.
In football, because he was ineligible to play ILH varsity ball in 1925, he became the regular quarterback for the Town Team of Honolulu’s rough and tough Senior Football League. In his only year of eligibility at Punahou (’26), he was Punahou’s first string quarterback. His ability as a drop-kicker and as a passer won several critical games for Punahou.
In his year at the University of Hawaii (1927) Red starred as the football team’s first string quarterback. Expected to play baseball he left the university shortly before the season started to accept a job at the Honolulu Advertiser. The next football season Red again quarterbacked the Townies. In 1929, he decided to retire from football and concentrate on his first love – baseball. For six years he starred at shortstop and was one of the leading hitters of the Elks Club Team of the Hawaii Senior League.
Sports editor of the Honolulu Advertiser from 1935 until his retirement in 1970, Red wrote the column “Hoomalimali” which became world-famous. His 40 years of coverage of Hawaiian, national and international sporting events won him a host of honors. These included being named a director of the Football Writers Association of America, the Nation’s Outstanding Sports Writer for 1957, and Sportsman of the Year (1958). In 1970 he was elected into the Hawaii Newspaper Hall of Fame and in 1978 he was named to Hawaii’s first “Athletic Hall of Fame.”
While only at Punahou for two-and-a-half years, Red immersed himself in all aspects of campus life. He captained the band, stage-managed plays, reported for Ka Punahou, and developed a deep and abiding love for Punahou which was reflected all through his professional career. He is also a long time member of the Outrigger Canoe Club and charter member of Waialae Country Club.