KAPOLEI, Hawaii — Hawaii still hits hard for Ronnie Lott.
Lott, a four-time Super Bowl champion defensive back with the San Francisco 49ers, made near-annual trips to the islands as a 10-time Pro Bowler in a 14-year Pro Football Hall of Fame career.
He returned to Oahu on Thursday as the featured figure of Ka Makana Alii’s football camp for youths on the field of Kapolei High School.
“What I think about people here, they feel the game. They love the soul of the game,” Lott, 64, told local media before addressing the more than 250 campers. “When I played, I tried to use that as a way to be very competitive and be respected. Football here, I can smell it right now.”
Lott told the 7- to 14-year-olds to bring some “wooo” into their lives – not just in football – and proceeded to encourage them with high fives and feedback at different skill stations. At one point, he even brought a keiki a lost water flask.
Lott was known for his hard hits and versatility to play both safety and cornerback throughout his career, which included a Pro Bowl appearance during his 1981 rookie season out of USC. He returned three interceptions for touchdowns that year. But for Lott, who went on to write a book and appear as an analyst on football broadcasts, and now owns an automobile dealership in Tracy, Calif. – “exhausting life,” he called it – Hawaii meant more than just football.
“Much different than the places you go around the world. People here respect you for a lot of interesting things beyond the way I played,” he said. “They respect you because they know that you care. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to come back.”
He wants the Pro Bowl to come back, too. Hawaii got the game in 1979 but lost it following the 2015 season, with the last game played at Aloha Stadium on Jan. 31, 2016.
Coming out to the islands was always an honor, never an ordeal, he said.
“A lot of great memories, a lot of amazing times with some incredible athletes,” Lott said.
He recalled his first Pro Bowl when he walked out of the Halawa tunnel and saw running back Walter Payton on the field.
“I remember he goosed me. I was like, ‘What?’,” Lott said with a laugh. “To see someone who carried himself the way he carried himself and to know what the game meant to him, yeah, it’s moments like that you’ll never forget. He showed me he wanted to have fun with it.
“That’s what all these kids are wanting today. Come out and learn the characteristics of what it’s like to be great. Hopefully I’ll be able to share a couple of things.”
In past years, the KMA camp at Kapolei has featured Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice. The San Francisco connection is through former 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo Jr.; DeBartolo Development built the Ka Makana Alii shopping center.
Kapolei High coach Darren Hernandez recalled the latter years of the Pro Bowl in Hawaii when the players would practice at the Hurricanes’ field.
“It always strikes me that some of these guys, you look at them and they’re larger-than-life figures,” he said. "But the guys we meet are just regular, down-to-earth people and really good dudes.”
Hernandez advised the campers to look up Lott’s hard-hitting YouTube highlights when they got home.
At the camp, Kapolei received a $5,000 donation from Ka Makana Alii to help fund its road trip to Calabasas (Calif.) High for a Sept. 1 nonleague game in the upcoming 2023 season.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
