Stephen Tsai: UH will use customized footballs to aid Lahaina

The University of Hawaii football team will use customized “Braddahballs” this season and Lahaina businesses and residents will have new ulu trees.

All of which were made possible because of a lesson in pono.

With input from the Rainbow Warriors and an expert in Hawaiian culture, Dallas-based Big Game designed, manufactured and sold footballs at a discounted price to UH for games and practices.

Fans also may purchase the specially crafted footballs at BigGameUSA.com, with 100% of the proceeds going to the UH Foundation’s Maui relief fund and Treecovery, a not-for-profit organization that grows ulu saplings and then donates them to businesses and residencies that lost trees in the Lahaina fires.

“We’re thinking about Maui,” UH head coach Timmy Chang said. “We want to help. It’s a little way of giving back.”

The partnership began when Chris Calandro, Big Game’s founder, owner and president, met with UH officials during a trip to Hawaii last year. After learning of the football team’s struggles, particularly with facilities, it was agreed that commemorative “Braddahballs” — a play on the Warriors’ Braddahood rallying cry — would be manufactured and sold, with UH sharing in the profits. The caveat was the project had to be culturally correct.

Calandro was introduced to Keola “Ola” Rapozo, a Native Hawaiian designer. For several hours, they discussed Hawaiian culture and the concerns about the motives of out-of-state businesses. “It really resonated with me, and changed my whole perspective,” Calandro said. “There was something inside me that said, ‘I want to give.’”

With the project set to launch, the Maui fires occurred. Calandro said he was about to scrap the project when “someone on our team said, ‘Let’s do this and give all the money to the UH Foundation. They could use it for students who are displaced or negatively affected by the tragedy.’ And that’s what we did.”

Fans bought more than 200 of the balls.

The thing was, the 2023 Braddahballs were ceremonial and not approved for use in NCAA games. This time it was decided to produce custom-designed footballs that could be used in games and practices, as well as sold to fans. The challenge was to design a football that was culturally significant but also legal for games.

Rapozo suggested incorporating ulu — symbolic of Maui’s agricultural history — into the football’s design. A prototype football was created using texture similar to the ulu. While the NCAA approved of the ball, Calandro noted, the “quarterbacks were not overjoyed with it. We modified it and it’s pretty close to the texture that is typical.”

This version features the H logo with the Hawaiian islands; the Adidas logo using the ulu texture; “braddah’ in green letters and “ball’ in a white outline, and what is referred to as “ulu green” stitching.

Calandro then called UH quarterback Brayden Schager, who grew up in nearby Highland Park and was home for a short summer break. Big Game supplied the footballs for Schager’s “Buddy Bowl,” a community event centering on a game involving students with challenges.

Schager was asked to critique the new Braddahball.

Schager offered his preference on the leather and the firmness of the football. “I like them with a lot of air,” he said. The NCAA approved the footballs for game use.

The first 100 Braddahballs were delivered this past week, in time for Saturday’s season opener against Delaware State. Each team uses its own footballs during games. Subsequent orders will be delivered throughout the season. A team typically goes through more than 200 footballs a season because of rain damage, wear and tear, and theft.

The Braddahball has received positive reviews.

“I like it,” said quarterback John-Keawe Sagapolutele, who threw them during Saturday’s final practice of training camp. “I like the color. I think it’s a cool ball.”

From cutting and stitching hides of leather, Big Game has provided footballs for 120 of the 130 FBS teams, including 12 of the past 13 national champions. But Calandro said the Hawaii project has been special to him.

“After Ola Rapozo taught me about pono and doing the right thing, and giving instead of taking, as a person from the mainland, I couldn’t help but give and do something good for people who need a boost,” Calandro said.