On this day in 1986 Pearl City lost its legendary athletics director.
Edwin “Bino” Neves died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 52, less than a month after showing up for the baseball and tennis state championships. He was diagnosed with the terminal condition nine months earlier.
Neves was a bull of a running back for Iolani in his high school days, leading the ILH in rushing in his senior year. He made headlines in 1951 for scoring four touchdowns in a win over McKinley.
Neves went on to play for Purdue and was instrumental in the Boilermakers’ ending Michigan State’s 28-game winning streak in 1953. It was his first collegiate start, as Purdue’s coach benched the seniors and started the sophomore.
His first coaching job was at a school in Indiana, taking the program to the title in its first year of playing the sport. He came home to coach with close friend Cal Chai at Kamehameha and was named Pearl City’s first athletic director in 1973.
The school’s football field was named in his honor shortly after his death.
I attended Purdue from 1953 to 1957 and I remembered Bino. So well