Tag Archives: UCLA football

More on the 1939 luau honoring the UCLA football team

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Here’s a bit more information on that 1939 luau in honor of the UCLA football team, which was in Honolulu to play the University of Hawaii.

The Wai brothers, Francis and Conkling, were playing for UCLA. My mother and friends had visited the Wai brothers in Los Angeles, and met up with them when they arrived in Honolulu. The photo, below, came from collection.

Their younger brother, Lambert Wai, identified his grandmother, Rosita Lambert, and his uncle, Charles Lambert, in the foreground on the far right.

Lambert Wai added this sad note:

My brother, Francis, had a really nice album and he had some pictures of that luau, along with many pictures of his athletic history. His widow had the album and when she remarried, she moved to Pennsylvania with her new husband. She has passed away and the whereabouts of that album is a mystery. I am really disturbed about that as the album brings back many, many memories and really has no meaning to anyone outside of our family.

Kalai Strode identified his father, Woody Strode, a member of the UCLA team and, later, one of the first black players to be signed by NFL following WWII, beginning integration of the league (Strode is marked by the arrow). By one published account, Strode was dropped by the Los Angeles Rams after a year because they objected to his “mixed” marriage to a Hawaiian woman.

Strode filed for divorce in 1955, although other information suggests it was not pursued. This point has to be checked.

Kalai Strode wrote:

Yes, my father is under the arrow. He would’ve been 97 years old this July 25th. He passed away on New Year’s Eve 1994.

The nexus of relationships are amazing. As you may know, the film director John Ford, was a friend of Kim Wai, the father of the Wai brothers. The story goes (as told to me by Lambert Wai) that Kim Wai was doing a pau hana outside of the Royal Hawaiian hotel, drinking with his friends when John Ford walked by dressed in his blue blazer, and seemed lonely. Kim Wai invited him to drink with the boys, and so everyday John Ford would meet up with Kim Wai and the boys and drink. That led to a friendship, so when the Wai boys went to UCLA, John Ford became their foster parent and looked after them.

Years later my father, Woody, became an actor and worked with John Ford on “Sergeant Rutledge.” John Ford knew all of my mother’s relatives because his children, Pat and Barbara Ford, went to Punahou. It was John Ford who introduced the Western movie to my father, and they became good friends. My father and John Ford’s sister were the only people in the room when John Ford passed away.

Luau

According to the caption, the photo was taken at the Bray’s. A search turned up a few photos of the Bray family, well-known entertainers in the 1930s and 1940s.

Luau honoring UCLA football team, January 1939

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My mother has been sorting through her papers and came up with this photo.

The caption reads:

Hawaiian luau in honor
of U.C.L.A football team
at the Bray’s
Honolulu, Hawaii–Jan. 4, 1939

Luau in 1939

Click to see a much larger version of the photo.

My mother recalls that she had met several of the UCLA players while visiting Los Angeles with several friends. They were shown around in L.A. by “the Wai brothers,” Francis and Conkling. She specifically remembers Francis Wai, a Punahou grad who played four sports at UCLA. Wai was killed in the Philippines during WWII, and was later awarded the Medal of Honor.

She looked at the photo for a long time, recognizing a few faces but no longer connecting them with names. She said the woman sitting at the table on the left in the polka dot dress is Gertrude Furtado, one of her friends. My mom was unable to find herself in the picture. I think that may be her sitting immediately to Furtado’s left, her face only partially visible.

Furtado’s sister, Libana, was one of my mother’s best friends. Another sister, Dolores Furtado Martin, later served as Democratic National Committeewoman from 1956-1964.

The Bray family were prominent Hawaiian musicians and entertainers. She recalls that they had a hula studio near Waikiki along Monsarrat Avenue, which may be where this photo was taken.

Maybe some other history buffs will be able to add some other names.

I initially thought Jackie Robinson was on the UCLA football team at the time, but it seems he didn’t join the team until the next season. But do keep an eye out for Woody Strode, later a well-known Hollywood actor.

From Wikipedia:

He (Robinson) was one of four black players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team; the others were Woody Strode, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett. Washington, Strode, and Robinson made up three of the team’s four backfield players. At a time when only a handful of black players existed in mainstream college football, this made UCLA college football’s most integrated team.

I just found a column by Lee Cataluna describing this very luau, where Woody Strode met the woman who would become his wife. And on YouTube, there’s a screenplay describing the same event written by Strode’s son. There are also a few photos of the game to be found.

The photo is stamped: “Tiffany Studio, Room 8, Pantheon Building, Corner Fort & Hotel St., Honolulu, Hawaii.”

In any case, it’s a great period photo.

My father arrived in Honolulu for the first time later that same year, on May 1. They were married just before Christmas.