Cal quarterback from Hawaii playing in the ACC adds to Aloha state’s legacy of arms
PHOTO: Cal quarterback Jaron-Kewae Sagapolutele rolls out in the Hawaii Bowl in a homecomign game last year. As a sophomore in 2026, he is positioned to join fellow Hawaiians Marcus Maritoa and Tua Tagaovailoa as a Heisman Trophy contender.
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Thomas Shanahan | @Thomas-Shanahan-23
Order link:
Raye of Light: Jimmy Raye, The Integration of College Football 3rd Ed – August Publications
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By TOM SHANAHAN
CHARLOTTE, N.C. >> The Cal quarterback by way of Campbell High School sat in a North Carolina hotel conference room used for the Atlantic Coast Conference Kickoff media days.
Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was 2,702 miles from Cal’s campus in Berkeley and 4,678 miles from his Oahu home in Ewa Beach during his press conference on July 17.
His attire at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown was a coat and tie and black dress shoes fit for an interview with a Fortune 500 company. If he was back home talking football at the Hilton Waikiki Beach, an aloha shirt and slippahs would suffice.
Remainder of my story is behind a Star-Advertiser paywall, www.staradvertiser.com
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Click here for my video clip from Sagapolutele’s interview in a breakout room at the ACC Kickoff.
Naturally, I asked him about Bob Apisa, a Polynesian Football Hall of Famer from Honolulu Farrington who was college football’s first Samoan All-American football pick while playing for Michigan State in the 1965 and the 1966 seasons. Although he wasn’t familiar with Apisa’s career, I give him credit for thanking me and saying he wanted to learn about Apisa’s ground-breaking Hawaiian and Samoan career.
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Bob Apisa, Kale Ane and Lucy Wedemeyer on the 60th anniversary of the 1966 Game of the Century:
Scroll down to Part III: PART IV, Duffy’s fingerprints on 1971 GOC: Nebraska’s Bob Devaney and Chuck Fairbanks from Daugherty’s coaching tree – Tom Shanahan Report
Visit my homepage: TomShanahan.Report
— Watch a three-minute video to learn about our documentary at the fundraising stage, GAME CHANGERS OF THE CENTURY, and the Investment Deck.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055
I’ll put my facts on the true pioneers of college football integration versus Bear Bryant fairytales against anybody, anytime, anywhere. Watch here.
Click here for my story on the 1962 Rose Bowl and Segregation and Alabama that earned first place for Enterprise from the Football Writers Association of American.
— Tom Shanahan is an award-winning sportswriter with two books on college football integration, “RAYE OF LIGHT, Jimmy Raye, Duffy Daugherty, the Integration of College Football and the 1965-66 Michigan State Spartans,” and “THE RIGHT THING TO DO, The True Pioneers of College Football Integration in the 1960s.” They are the most accurate accounts of college football integration in the 1950s and 1960s. They also debunk myths about the 1970 USC-Alabama game. The false narrative co-opted the stories of the true pioneers who stood up to Jim Crow and the KKK.
— Two children’s books also explain Michigan State College Football Hall of Fame coach Duffy Daugherty’s impact on integration through the Underground Railroad and the Hawaiian Pipeline: “DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” and “HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP.”
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PURCHASE LINKS, non-fiction books
— RAYE OF LIGHT,
Raye of Light: Jimmy Raye, The Integration of College Football 3rd Ed – August Publications
or on Amazon.
— THE RIGHT THING TO DO, August Publications or on Amazon.
PURCHASE LINKS, children’s books
— DUFFY’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: Order from Barnes and Noble here and Amazon here.
— HOW DUFFY PUT HAWAII ON AMERICA’S FOOTBALL MAP. Order here:
How Duffy Put Hawaii On America’s Football Map by Tom Shanahan, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®
Amazon.com: How Duffy Put Hawaii On America’s Football Map eBook : Shanahan, Tom: Kindle Store
