KANEOHE, Hawaii — Marshall Faulk remembers, all right.
How could he not?
If you scored 17 rushing touchdowns in three games against the same team, you’d recall it decades later, too.
Faulk, the former standout San Diego State running back who tormented the University of Hawaii in three career meetings, was in town recently for a few days — not to gloat, but to lend a hand.
Faulk was one of eight Pro Football Hall of Famers to visit servicemembers at Marine Corps Base Hawaii for the Armed Forces Entertainment Pro Blitz, a series of events from Jan. 30 to Feb. 6.
[Note: See below for more photos of NFL veterans with Marines at Kaneohe MCBH.]
Spectrum News caught up with Faulk on the first day of the retired stars’ visit with troops at MCBH, the same day a powerful storm inundated the islands with heavy wind and rain.
Faulk, like the Marines who showed off weaponry and combat vehicles to the NFL vets, seemed to pay the elements no mind.
“I love playing here. I love playing on the turf (at Aloha Stadium) and it carried over,” Faulk said as his peers just a few feet away were coached through the proper technique to shoulder a Stinger missile launcher.
“I had games, good games when I played the Pro Bowl (in Hawaii) as well,” he continued. “So I'd say it wasn't as much the team. It was the fans and the stadium.”
He chuckled.
“I probably should have went to the University of Hawaii, played here more often.”
Faulk, wearing a black hoodie, declined to handle the weaponry himself out of personal principle, but said he had the utmost respect for what the troops do and was happy to devote some of what he considered the most precious resource — time.
He watched from the side as Steve Atwater, the “Smiling Assassin” with the Denver Broncos through the 1990s, and Richard Dent, former defensive end with the Chicago Bears, peered through a Stinger scope. Others in the group were shown the proper form in operating a machine gun while prone.
Others in the group of Hall of Famers were James Lofton, Orlando Pace, LeRoy Butler and Tim Brown.
Cpl. Jonathan Ellis, 21, of Waxhaw, N.C., took special pride in showing off some of what his group does.
“A lot of times it's like a very thankless job, but to have them come out here, see how we operate,” Ellis said, “seeing my junior Marines and the guys that I taught growing up, coming out here and showing how smart they are, that for me has been the most enjoyable part.”
The closest thing he’d experienced prior to that, he said, was hosting some Medal of Honor recipients.
His favorite player to see?
“Oh man, the long list of legends that stand here today, I definitely think (former Green Bay Packers safety) LeRoy Butler was definitely probably one of the coolest ones to meet, for sure,” Ellis said. “But (former Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders receiver) Tim Brown, I mean, he was the truth back in the day.”
The week leading up to the Super Bowl is an opportune time for the stars to make visits because of the attention put on the big game.
In addition to events with the Hall of Famers and NFL cheerleaders, a roster of local NFL talent was on hand during the week, including Cincinnati Bengals receiver Andrei Iosivas (Punahou), Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Roman Wilson (Saint Louis) and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Marist Liufau (Punahou). Retired players with local ties included Samson Satele, Nate Ilaoa and Leonard Peters.
It was at least Faulk’s fifth tour visiting soldiers around the world, but Hawaii ranked as among the most hospitable. “Rain in Hawaii is not the worst thing,” he said, pointing out he has visited soldiers in places as off the beaten path as Honduras and Guantanamo Bay off the coast of Cuba.
When Hawaii faced Faulk, it didn't just rain — it poured.
Of his program-record seven 200-yard games, two were against UH.
His 300 yards against Hawaii in San Diego in November 1992 is a program record for a sophomore. He did it on 43 attempts and scored four touchdowns. It was one of two 300-plus performances in his college career; he still owns the program single-game rushing record of 386 against Pacific in 1991.
He had 212 yards and five touchdowns on 22 carries at Hawaii on Oct. 5, 1991. As a junior on Oct. 19, 1993, he tallied 175 yards and four more TDs on 27 runs at Aloha Stadium. The Aztecs won all three of those WAC matchups.
He and TCU back LaDanian Tomlinson are widely remembered as two of the most effective players against UH in the 1990s.
Faulk was asked why he thought he was so effective against that era of UH teams, which included a WAC championship season and Holiday Bowl victory in 1992, one of the greatest years in UH program history.
The former NFL Network commentator considered the question for a moment.
“It was always sort of weird, because Hawaii, they refused to get beat by the pass, so they never really stacked the box against me and I just had good games against them, for whatever reason,” Faulk replied. “It didn't matter how good the team was, and how well they played offensively, defensively. Sometimes you play against teams and the philosophical differences of the offense and the defense, it benefits you, and it always benefited me when I played them. I wish I could say ‘oh, because they were slower, they were smaller, they were too big.’ I don't know, it just it worked out for me.”
He tallied 4,786 yards in his three-year SDSU career, the program record until Donnel Pumphrey shredded it in four years from 2013-16.
Faulk was drafted second by the Indianapolis Colts in 1994 and won a Super Bowl in his first season as part of the “Greatest Show on Turf” with the St. Louis Rams in 1999-00.
He tallied 12,279 yards, the ninth-ranked rusher in league history at the time of his retirement. He ran for 100 TDs and caught 36 more.
Faulk said he now guides student-athletes through the culture of new money in the Name, Image and Likeness era of college athletics.
That rapid change in the sport won’t affect how he views the Islands, which he says he visits frequently; he was here last June and will be back for a wedding in March.
“I fell in love with Hawaii when I first came out here, when I played at San Diego State, just the people here, in a sense; although it’s a sport and they cheer against you, their sportsmanship is just awesome. The good nature of the of the locals here and how they treated me over the years — and I wasn’t always the nicest back in the sense that I did a lot of damage to the Warriors back in the day — but they’ve always been good to me.”
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.
