Former BYU and Hawaii coach Frank Arnold did ‘things his way’

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / 1985 Frank Arnold coached the ’Bows during the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons.

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / 1985

Frank Arnold coached the ’Bows during the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons.

As head coach in the mid-1980s, Frank Arnold was synonymous with one of the most combustible two-season periods in University of Hawaii basketball history.

But the view was different for a 20-year-old Kawika Hallums in September 1986. After two seasons at BYU Hawaii, Hallums enrolled at UH. After a long talk with assistant coach Bob Nash, Hallums was offered a two-day tryout with the Rainbows.

“My family couldn’t afford to spend one more dime for me to go to school,” said Hallums, who received a final notice he had to pay an outstanding $715 bill to remain at UH. “We didn’t have that.”

After taking three buses from Waianae to the Manoa campus, Hallums kicked “fanny rump” — an Arnold phrase — during the tryouts. Hallums was summoned to Arnold’s office, where there was a scholarship document in his name.

“He changed my life,” said Hallums, now a patrol sergeant in Kalihi and a Spectrum Sports analyst. “I can trace everything that’s been good in my life to Frank Arnold giving me that scholarship. Everything I have now, it’s because of what Frank Arnold was able to do for me. Without (the scholarship), I would have survived, but it wouldn’t have been good. He was a great man. This is a sad day because of everything he’s done for me.”

Arnold, who coached the ’Bows during the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons, died Saturday at age 89, BYU announced. Arnold was the Cougars’ head coach from 1975 through 1983.

After Larry Little was not renewed as UH head coach in 1985, then-athletic director Stan Sheriff narrowed his choices to Mike Montgomery, a rising coaching star at Montana, and Arnold, who led the Cougars to three NCAA Tournaments, advancing to the Elite Eight in 1981, and coached future NBA players Danny Ainge, Greg Kite, Fred Roberts and Devin Durrant.

Sheriff picked Arnold, with the belief his experience — he previously was on John Wooden’s staff at UCLA — would provide stability to a struggling UH program. (Montgomery, who is the College Basketball Hall of Fame, eventually coached at Stanford and with the Golden State Warriors.)

Arnold, whose demeanor usually was a stiff as his shirt collars, displayed unabashed enthusiasm at the start of his UH tenure.

“I’d be very surprised in two years if there are any seats left … by golly, people had better start buying their season tickets now,” Arnold told now-retired columnist Ferd Lewis in 1985. “Our major goal is to sell that place (Blaisdell Arena) out.”

But Arnold’s hiring was controversial because of his past ties to BYU at a time when the Cougars were UH’s primary rival.

“Hawaii fans wanted to beat BYU in every sport,” said Larry Beil, who was the play-by-play announcer at the time. “For him to come from Provo to UH probably was a bigger challenge than he realized at the time. He was trying to bring stability to a program at a time when it desperately needed it. But he probably was not the right long-term fit for the University of Hawaii given the unique challenges the school faced.”

Arnold was widely regarded as an innovative tactician. He also insisted on building through high school recruiting instead of junior college transfers. He signed Chris Gaines, who went on to become the ’Bows’ career scoring leader. But he often clashed with guard Andre Morgan, leading to a suspension in 1986. Morgan, who was recruited by the previous staff, was Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 1982 and regarded as one of the the nation’s top 25 prospects that year.

Nash recalled that Arnold wanted “to do things his way,” particularly in his management and honest evaluations, and “his way sometimes rubbed the people the wrong way.”

But Nash added: “As a person, he had very high standards. Time management was his thing. He micromanaged time.”

Brad Rock, a retired columnist for the Deseret News, said that Arnold won games at BYU but was cited for being too critical of players, “too outspoken in postgame shows.”

That formula would not prove to be enduring at UH, despite the improvements, because the ’Bows were not winning. The ’Bows were 4-24 in Arnold’s first season, 7-21 in the second.

In 1987, Arnold announced he was resigning to accept an assistant coach’s position at Arizona State. He worked there for two years before pursuing other interests, including building his own home in Arizona.

“He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty,” Nash said of Arnold’s work ethic. “I never had problems with him. He always treated me fairly.”

Arnold son, Gib Arnold, was UH’s head coach for four seasons, a tenure that also ended in controversy. The younger Arnold recently earned a master’s degree in psychology from Harvard University.