More Michigan State and Duffy football history for young Spartans
By TOM SHANAHAN
My latest children’s book included help from Lia Kamana, a fellow Michigan State graduate of the College of Communications Arts and Sciences.
She’s also a legacy Hawaiian Pipeline Spartan as the daughter of Carter Kamana, a Michigan State defensive back from Honolulu Kamehameha. Lia, a TV journalist in Portland, Oregon, made sure any Hawaiian phrases or geography was properly spelled out without translation errors.
This is another effort to lay down a track of College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s influence changing the face of college football. These stories are largely unknown or lost to history.
Hawaiians love football, but islands talent was sleepy until Michigan State College Daugherty tapped the Hawaiian Pipeline. He put Hawaii on the football map with the help of Hawaii legend Tommy Kaulukukui Sr. In all, 11 Hawaiians played for the Spartans between 1955 and 1983.
College football’s first Samoan All-American player was Bob Apisa on the 1965 and 1966 national championship teams. His fame led Hawaiians to adopt Michigan State as their team in the era before Division I football at the University of Hawaii in 1974. When Michigan State and Notre Dame met in the 1966 Game of the Century, it was the first football game broadcast live to Hawaii.
As Hawaii’s talent grew, Manti Te’o, playing for Notre Dame, was the first Polynesian Maxwell Award winner in 2012; Marcus Mariotta, playing for Oregon, was the first Polynesian Heisman Trophy winner in 2014; and the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame was established in 2015.
Here’s a Kirkus Review.
HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP | Kirkus Reviews
It’s not as glowing as the review for Duffy and College Football’s Underground Railroad, but the Duffy and Hawaii book offers to young readers Michigan State football history and social commentary similar to the Underground Railroad.
Kirkus dinged Hawaii for the artwork and the number of unknown characters to explain. But how can the reader learn the characters without including them? I’ll write that off to the risk of self-publishing a book.
The book includes re-tapping of the Hawaiian Pipeline with four players from Hawaii high schools on the 2026 roster: Rustin Young, St. Louis; Kekai Burnett, Punahou; Anelu Lafaele, Farrington; and Leonard Ah You, Kahuku.
Here is the Kirkus Review for “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” This book tells a deeper story of Duffy’s influence on college football integration with the first fully integrated rosters and his coaching tree.
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