Buffs Visit Pearl Harbor, USS Arizona Memorial

HONOLULU — Seventy-five Colorado football players walked into a theater Wednesday morning with the swagger and lively chatter one would expect from a college football team.

Roughly 25 minutes later, the players exited from the Pearl Harbor visitor center auditorium with an almost palpable air of solemnity. As they took a ferry ride from the visitor center to the USS Arizona Memorial, players spoke in hushed tones about what they'd seen and what they were about to see at the memorial.

There, they saw the names on the wall of the 1,177 crew members who died in the attack. They saw the rusting hulk of the battleship under water, where the bodies of approximately 900 sailors are still entombed.

And they realized that many of the men who died on Dec. 7, 1941, were their age.

“It makes you think about those young men and their families,” CU center Alex Kelley said, “and it makes you proud of our country. You appreciate all the men who cared enough about their country to lay down their lives for all of us. It just makes you think …”

CU coach Mike MacIntyre had the Pearl Harbor visit on CU's docket for months, calling it a great opportunity to combine an educational experience with a football trip.

“When I was at San Jose State, we played Navy, and we went to see the Washington Monument and the War Memorial,” MacIntyre said recently. “Watching those kids' eyes and hearing them talk about it … they still talk about that experience. It made me realize that it focused them, and it made them very prideful of their country. For a lot of them, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see it.”

At the memorial, players quietly looked at the displays, silently read the names on the wall and listened attentively as park rangers provided more details of the attack and the history of the memorial. They marveled at the fact that more than 70 years later, the massive ship is still leaking oil, and they grew wide-eyed when they learned that survivors of the attack have had the option over the years to have their remains entombed in the very ship they once escaped.

“It's unbelievable,” Buff defensive lineman Jordan Carrell said. “You hear about it, but when you see it, that's when it hits home. It makes you proud of our country and the men who served. I'm glad I was able to experience it with the men I work so closely with every day. I'm glad we were here as a team.”

Bryan McGinnis, CU's director of football operations, said the visit was an educational opportunity that fits perfectly into the student-athlete experience.

“Anytime we have the chance to provide an opportunity like this, we need to do it if possible,” McGinnis said. “You could see the looks in their eyes when they realized that the guys who died here were their age. This is something that will stick with them, something they'll remember long after they're done playing football.''

Thursday night, the Buffaloes will face Hawai'i in their season opener. But for a couple hours Wednesday afternoon, football wasn't foremost on their minds.

“Crazy — what happened here is unbelievable,” defensive back Ahkello Witherspoon said. “You hear about it in school, but when you see it, when you're here … it really makes you think.”

PRACTICE NOTES: The Buffs finished up their 29th practice of the preseason Wednesday morning with a workout in shorts and helmets at Aloha Stadium before visiting Pearl Harbor.

They spent the morning making some final fine-tune adjustments to their game plan for Thursday night's season opener vs. Hawai'i, scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. local time (11 p.m. Mountain time).

The players had some time to themselves Wednesday afternoon before returning for meetings. MacIntyre said he will give the players a chance to sleep in Thursday before meetings in the morning and early afternoon.

There are obviously plenty of distractions in Hawai'i, with the Buffs' hotel on Waikiki Beach. But MacIntyre said his team has had no trouble keeping an eye on the task at hand.

“They've done well," MacIntyre said. "Everybody is showing up on time, focused … it's been good.”

 

Contact:Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu