The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and Rainbow Wāhine are the athletic teams that represent the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...

(UH), in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

, Hawaii. The UH athletics program is a member of the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...

in most sports and competes at the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

level. It comprises seven men's, 12 women's, and two coed athletic teams.

Nickname

Hawaiʻi athletics began more than a century ago, with the first football team being fielded in 1909. Through 1923, the UH teams were called the "Deans." In the final game of the 1923 season, the football team upset

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees through all 11 of the universit ...

, with a rainbow appearing over the stadium during the game. Sportswriters began referring to UH teams as the "Rainbows," and the tradition was born that Hawaii could not lose if a rainbow appeared. The rainbow officially became a part of the school's athletic logo in 1982 and remained until 2000. King Kamehameha the Great and his warriors united the Hawaiian Islands, earning the warrior a place of honor in Hawaiian history and an expectation of strength, skill and a fighting spirit. The UH teams became known as "Rainbow Warriors" long before the name became official in 1974. When women's teams were begun in 1972, founder and first women's athletic director Dr. Donnis Thompson named the teams the "Rainbow Wāhine" with "wāhine" being Hawaiian for women. Both the men's and the women's teams have long been known as the "Rainbows" or merely the "Bows." A controversial change in 2000 allowed each team to pick its own team name; the football, men's volleyball, golf, and tennis teams became the Warriors, while the men's basketball and swimming & diving teams remained Rainbow Warriors, and the baseball team became the Rainbows. The women's teams, however, all remained the “Rainbow Wāhine." At the same time, the school changed its athletics logo to the current stylized "H," omitting the rainbow of the old logo altogether. On July 1, 2013, the nicknames of the university's men's sports teams were once again standardized, and all male teams at the university are now referred to as the "Rainbow Warriors." More recently, the women's beach volleyball team, while still officially "Rainbow Wāhine," generally uses "SandBows" (now colloquially known as BeachBows).

History

Conference affiliation

The Hawaiʻi men's teams competed as independents until joining the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC) in 1979. The women's teams were independents until joining the

Pacific Coast Athletic Association The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

in 1985, with that conference rebranding as the Big West Conference in 1988. In 1996, the women's teams joined the men in the WAC. In July 2012, most of the school's teams moved from the WAC to the women's former league, the Big West Conference. Since the Big West does not sponsor football, the Rainbow Warriors became affiliate members of the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

. Teams in sports not sponsored by the Big West compete as members of the

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the Western United States, although it has added members as far east as Massachusetts. The conference participates at the NCAA Divisio ...

. In October 2024, Hawai’i announced that it will be joining the Mountain West Conference as a full member in 2026.

Sports sponsored

Baseball

The Rainbow Warriors have made one appearance in the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

, finishing as the runner up to champion

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

in the 1980 College World Series. Since 2022, the team is led by head coach Rich Hill.

Men's basketball

The Rainbow Warriors are coached by

Eran Ganot Eran Ganot (born September 8, 1981) is an American college basketball head coach for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors basketball, University of Hawaii men's team. In 2015–16, his first season as head coach at Hawaii, he earned Big West Coach of the ...

. In 2015, the university self-imposed penalties as a result of NCAA violations committed by the previous coaching staff that included vacating 36 wins from the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons, reducing scholarships and practice time, and placing itself on one-year probation. The university also agreed to pay a $10,000 fine. The team's most recent appearance in the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...

was in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Women's basketball

The Hawaiʻi Rainbow Wāhine basketball team represents the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. They are currently coached by Laura Beeman. The team plays its home games at the

Stan Sheriff Center The SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center is a 10,300-seat multi-purpose arena in Honolulu CDP,

Women's beach volleyball

The Hawaiʻi Rainbow Wāhine beach volleyball team, also known as the Hawaiʻi "Beach Bows", is the NCAA Division I beach volleyball team at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Football

The Hawaiʻi Rainbow Warriors football team competes in

NCAA Division I FBS The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

. The team, which is currently coached by

Timmy Chang Timothy Kealii'okaaina Awa Chang (born October 9, 1981) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is currently the head coach of the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. During his playing career at Hawaii, he set several major college foot ...

, joined the

in July 2012. Under former coach

June Jones June Sheldon Jones III (born February 19, 1953) is an American football coach and former player who was most recently the offensive coordinator of the Seattle Sea Dragons. Jones was the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa ...

, they were the third BCS non-AQ team to play in a BCS bowl game, having faced

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

in the Sugar Bowl on January 1, 2008, losing to Georgia 41-10. Hawaiʻi was ranked 10th and UGA ranked 5th in the nation. Hawaiʻi was the only undefeated team of the 2007 season, before losing in the Sugar Bowl in January 2008.

Softball

The Hawaiʻi Rainbow Wāhine softball team is the NCAA Division I college softball team for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. They are currently coached by Bob Coolen. The team has made one appearance in the

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States and is held annually in Oklahoma City, OK. The event is held at Devon Park (stadium), Devon Park loca ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Men's volleyball

The Hawaiʻi Rainbow Warriors volleyball team represents the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in NCAA Division I college volleyball and play their home games at the

Stan Sheriff Center The SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center is a 10,300-seat multi-purpose arena in Honolulu CDP,Charlie Wade Charlie Wade (born October 8, 1963) is the head coach of the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors volleyball team. Coaching career Wade spent 11 years at the University of Hawai'i with the Rainbow Wahine volleyball staff, nine as an associate coach to Dave ...

. The team won back-to-back NCAA men's volleyball championships in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

and

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Women's volleyball

The Hawaiʻi Rainbow Wāhine volleyball team represents the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in NCAA Division I college volleyball and play their home games at the

Stan Sheriff Center The SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center is a 10,300-seat multi-purpose arena in Honolulu CDP,Robyn Ah Mow Robyn Mokihana Ah Mow (born September 15, 1975) is an American indoor volleyball coach and former player. She is the head coach of the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team. She was a setter on the USA national team and played at the 2000 Sydne ...

. The team is one of the most successful women's volleyball programs in the country having won 4 national championships (3 NCAA, 1 AIAW). The Rainbow Wāhine volleyball team has made the NCAA tournament every year since 1993.

Traditions

School colors

The school colors for the Hawaiʻi Rainbow Warriors and Rainbow Wāhine are green, white, black and silver. The white and green colors were chosen by the wives of the faculty. In 2000, a new athletics logo was created that included black and silver, so those colors are now also used by the athletics department.

In film

The creation of the first Rainbow Wāhine teams at the University of Hawaiʻi is the subject of the documentary fil
Rise of the Wahine
directed by Dean Kaneshiro. Rise of the Wāhine features the struggles of these first women's teams after the passing of Title IX and the film highlights the roles of coaches Alan Kang and

Dave Shoji Dave Shoji (born December 4, 1946) is an American sports coach who was the head coach of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa Rainbow Wahine volleyball team from 1975 to 2017. Under his leadership, the Rainbow Wahine won four national titles (197 ...

, first female Athletic Director Dr. Donnis Thompson,

Patsy Mink Patsy Matsu Mink ( Takemoto; , December 6, 1927 – September 28, 2002) was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii who served in the United States House of Representatives for 24 years as a member of the Democratic ...

, and first-teams volleyball players Beth McLachlin, Marilyn Moniz-Kaho`ohanonaho, Joyce Kapua`ala, and Joey Akeo.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, color=white , list = {{Big West Conference navbox {{Mountain West Conference navbox {{Mountain Pacific Sports Federation navbox {{Hawaii Sports