Kauai sports 76 years ago

Seventy-six years ago, the umbrella organization for practically every competitive sporting activity on Kauai was the Kauai Athletic Union (KAU), founded in 1937 by a group headed by Kekaha Sugar Co. Manager Lindsay A. Faye.

In 1938, men of Japanese ancestry competed in the AJA Baseball League, while the 11-team Senior Baseball League was open to men of all races and nationalities.

KAU men also battled in the ring as amateur and professional boxers that year.  Other sports that Kauai men engaged in competitively were football, volleyball, soccer, basketball, track and field, softball, tennis, badminton, swimming, golf and the Filipino game of sipa.

Women participated in volleyball, basketball, softball, badminton and swimming leagues.    

In those days, football was extraordinarily popular with players and fans.

Most of it was played in the barefoot football leagues, where men wore no shoes, not even slippers.

The Kauai Pine AA (Kauai Pineapple Co., Lawai) team coached by Stanley Kawakami won the 1938 Kauai 125-pound Barefoot League crown with a perfect 7-0 record.  

Other teams competing in 125-pound Barefoot League were: Waimea, Kekaha, Lihue Townies, Koloa, Lihue Plantation, Pono AC (Hawaiian Canneries, Kapaa), McBryde and Makaweli.

There was also a seven-team, 115-pound barefoot league comprised of adults and older teenagers that was sponsored by The Garden Island newspaper. With Bill Chu as coach, Pono AC won all six of its games in 1938.

Kauai’s “Big League” of football was the Senior League. Its players competed in full football uniform and were required to weigh in at more than 150 pounds.

In 1938, teams entered in the Senior League were Pono AC, Kekaha AA, Lihue PAA and McBryde AC.

Pono AC, led by coach and halfback Ben Lizama, took the title that year with a record of 5 wins and 1 tie.  

There were no kids sports leagues within the KAU.  

Kauai High School competed in sports with schools from Oahu and Maui on a limited basis.