We are heartbroken to share that former University of Hawaiʻi Head Football Coach Bob “Wags” Wagner has passed away after battling recent health challenges. Our loving husband and father touched many lives throughout Hawaiʻi and will be dearly missed by all who knew him.
As the University of Hawaiʻi Rainbow Warriors head football coach, Coach Wags was a two-time Conference Coach of the Year with a winning record. He led the Rainbow Warriors to their first bowl game in 1989 and their first Western Athletic Conference (WAC) title in 1992. He represented the WAC as its champion in the 1992 Holiday Bowl with a win over Illinois. Coach Wags is the only University of Hawaiʻi head football coach to have beaten rival BYU on multiple occasions in 1989, 1990, and 1992. Over the last ten years, he has enjoyed retirement from his service at Kamehameha Schools, where he served as the Hawaiʻi Campus’ first Athletics Director at the end of his career.
Coach Wags and his wife, Gloria, loved traveling the world together, and they visited 67 countries throughout their marriage. They also frequently visited their daughter, Christy. As a husband and father, he always took time to celebrate the small, special moments in life that became our family traditions. Admiring beautiful sunsets, listening to the surf, and enjoying our family’s favorite desserts together were just a few of them. He loved Hawaiʻi and its people and knew he was loved and admired by family and friends before his passing. He shared in recent days that as a young boy growing up at Newark, Ohio, he never imagined a wonderful life like this.
On Tuesday evening, Coach Wags passed away peacefully at their family home on Hawaiʻi Island. He was 76.
The Wagner family requests privacy as we navigate our grief during this challenging time.
BOB WAGNER TIMELINE
• In 1977 at age 30, Bob Wagner was hired as an assistant coach at the University of Hawai’i by then-head coach Larry Price. He was then retained when Dick Tomey took over the program later that year.
• Wagner coached linebackers, defensive backs and special teams early in his UH career before being elevated to defensive coordinator in 1983. The Rainbow Warriors earned a reputation for hard-hitting defense and ranked sixth in the nation in total defense in 1986.
• Wagner was hired as the University of Hawai’i’s 19th head football coach on Jan. 15, 1987 after Tomey moved on to Arizona following a decade leading the Rainbow Warriors. Wagner hired Paul Johnson to implement a spread option offense and Rich Ellerson to run the defense and the Rainbow Warriors went 5-7 in 1987.
• The Rainbow Warriors opened the 1988 season by knocking off No. 11 Iowa 27-24. Heikoti Fakava rushed for three touchdowns and Jason Elam’s field goal with 1:36 left gave the ‘Bows the lead for good. UH finished the season 9-3 to set the stage for a breakthrough 1989 season.
• After a decade of frustration against Brigham Young, the Rainbow Warriors routed the Cougars 56-14 on Oct. 28, 1989 on their way to a 9-2-1 regular season and earned the program’s first NCAA-sanctioned bowl berth with a spot in the Jeep-Eagle Aloha Bowl against Michigan State. Wagner was named the Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. The 1990 season would be highlighted by another blowout of BYU, this one a 59-28 rout in the finale of a 7-5 season.
• The Western Athletic Conference championship had eluded UH over its first 13 years of membership and the Rainbow Warriors entered the 1992 season picked to finish eighth in the WAC’s preseason polls. Instead, the Rainbow Warriors rolled to an 11-2 season, sparked by road wins at Oregon and Air Force and a dramatic 36-32 win over BYU in the home opener. They captured the program’s first conference title with a 42-18 victory over Wyoming on Nov. 21, 1992. A 27-17 win over Illinois in the Holiday Bowl in UH’s first bowl appearance on the continent punctuated the landmark season. The Warriors ended the season ranked 20th in the final Associated Press poll and Wagner earned his second WAC Coach of the Year award. The 1992 team would be inducted into the UH Sports Circle of Honor in 2017.
• Wagner served as head coach through the 1995 season with a career record of 58-49-3 — including a 7-3 mark against Big Ten and Pac-10 opponents — having spent 19 seasons in Mānoa. His win total ranks fourth in UH history behind Otto Klum (84), June Jones (76) and Tomey (63). Wagner was inducted into the UH Sports Circle of Honor in 2007.
• He rejoined Tomey as an assistant coach at Arizona and later coached at UTEP. He returned to Hawai’i and was named the first athletic director at Kamehameha Schools Hawai’i in 2002. He led the program for 10 years before retiring in 2012.
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