Fans might notice a new jersey detail on the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s football uniform this season.
A white square featuring the Hawaiian Airlines logo will be seen on the top right of the athletes’ jerseys, making it the first partner to have an official patch on a UH uniform. This is also the first partnership between an athletics department and an airline in the country.
Matt Elliott, UH Mānoa's athletic director, said Hawaiian Airlines has been the official mode of air transportation for all UH varsity programs for more than 30 years, making this launch an easy decision. With UH Athletics moving into the Mountain West Conference, the teams will have to travel further more frequently.
“There was no better match, there was no better partner for us to move forward with,” Elliott said. “This partnership was very important to us to be specific to football.”
The NCAA approved uniform patches for Division 1 collegiate sports in January of this year, which officials said could generate millions in revenue to fund athletic departments and pay players across the country.
For UH, the patch partnership with Hawaiian Airlines is a year-long deal. Elliott said the announcement marked the first of many varsity teams patch partnerships that will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Diana Birkett Rakow, the airline’s CEO, noted that a charter flight will be provided for every football trip during this season.
“Supporting student athletes is really important to us, not just because of the pride that we have in UH, but because we're cultivating and supporting things in these team members that are valuable today and will be valuable to them throughout their life,” Birkett Rakow said. “They're things that we see in our operation every day: the need to work together as a team, the need to be resilient in the face of adversity, the need to continue to drive for performance, and the need to work with your fan base to get the best energy possible to go the distance.”
The Hawaiian Airlines Pualani jersey patch will make its first appearance at the Rainbow Warriors’ season opener at Stanford University this Saturday.
