Just in time for the midpoint of basketball season, two of the isle’s most legendary and influential basketball figures received a unique honor.
Mayor Mitch Roth proclaimed Jan. 6 “Coach Larry and Al Manliguis Day” in Hawaii County, as announced Saturday during a luncheon at Nani Mau Restaurant and Garden.
The luncheon, which had roughly 300 attendees, was held to honor Al, 94, and his late brother, Larry, who died of cancer in 2007. During the mid-20th century, the brothers turned Hilo High into a basketball powerhouse.
Following the mayor’s proclamation, the room rang with dozens of voices singing Hilo High’s alma mater.
Al took the stage and jokingly told the audience that if he had known there would be such a large attendance at the luncheon, he “would have said no.”
Manliguis recalled that he had already been honored at a previous event following his retirement from coaching in the 1980s.
“I’ve been blessed, blessed for all of you,” Manliguis said. “You’re the ones who made me, not me.”
Larry’s daughter, Laureen, next took the stage to speak about her father.
“If you knew my dad, you knew that he was very laid back and very calm,” she said. “Not that he was late to things, but he never seemed to be in a real rush. If we were late for things, he’d never scold us or get mad at us.
“The exception was basketball. He always wanted to get to (Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium) before the JV game started. That’s how early he would get there to the gym.”
She also mentioned one of Larry’s favorite phrases; “some shame.”
Laureen then told about how her father was very polite, and didn’t like to make people feel shame. So much so that when Larry would get mistaken for Al, he’d sometimes go along with it.
She recalled once watching Larry have a long conversation with an unknown man, after which she asked him who he’d been speaking to.
“He goes ‘I don’t know, he thought I was Al,’” Laureen said.
Background
Al and Larry coached the Hilo High boys basketball team for a combined 48 years, winning 31 Big Island Interscholastic Federation titles and three state titles.
Thanks to the Manliguis brothers, Hilo is the only non-Oahu team to win any Hawaii High School Athletic Association boys basketball titles from statehood until the state split schools into Division I and Division II categories.
Between them, the pair also notched almost 1,000 victories and provided a lifetime of memories for multiple generations of Hiloans.
The Manliguis style was fan-friendly and exciting — full-court pressure and an uptempo offense.
Al Manliguis starred on Hilo’s territorial championship teams of the 1940s, spurning recruitment offers from wealthy alumni at private Honolulu powerhouses Punahou and Kamehameha. Named the Hawaii Territorial Basketball Tournament’s Most Valuable Player in 1948, he became a four-year starter for the University of Hawaii at Manoa Rainbows and was named the team’s Most Inspirational Player his senior year.
Al started his coaching career at Laupahoehoe High School in 1956 before assuming the reins at Hilo in 1958, where he presided over a Big Island hoops dynasty for 26 years. He led the Vikings to a state title in 1964 with a 63-55 victory over Punahou. That championship team featured younger brother Cal Manliguis — who also went on to become a coach — as a standout player. The spunky Hilo team also notched two runner-up finishes at states with Al Manliguis at the helm, in 1973 and 1977.
Equally impressive, the Viks claimed 20 BIIF titles during his tenure.
Self-described as “old school” and “a stern disciplinarian,” Al was a studious coach, learning from his coaches, such as Ung Soy “Beans” Ah Fook — whom he played for at both Hilo and UH — as well as attending clinics by big-name national coaches.
Larry Manliguis also played at Hilo, first for Bud Scott and his junior and senior seasons for his older brother. He was a three-year starter, a BIIF first-team All-Star and a member of Al’s first BIIF championship team.
From 1960-’62, Larry played two seasons for the Rainbows, then transferred to Cal State-Long Beach to pursue an education degree.
He returned to his high school alma mater as an assistant coach to brother Al from 1976-’83 before becoming head coach in 1984.
In typical Manliguis style, brother Larry’s teams staked their claim to two HHSAA titles — a 59-44 upset win over Kalaheo in 1991, and a 68-55 victory over a taller, more physical St. Louis squad in 2000.
And in 1992, the Viks almost pulled off a repeat state title, falling just short in overtime to Kamehameha Schools-Kapalama, 76-73.
As it had been under Al Manliguis, the younger brother’s Vikings were a dominant force on the Island of Hawaii, taking 11 BIIF titles.
Larry Manliguis was low-key and outwardly calm, but beneath the laid-back exterior burned a passion and intensity equal to his older brother’s.
Both brothers won numerous Coach of the Year awards and have been inducted into the Big Island Sports Hall of Fame.
