Iolani Alumni

After a little bit of digging I was able to find out who the newly built Iolani stadium was named after. For all of you that don’t know, Iolani built a brand new multi-use complex in place of the old tennis courts that houses a bunch of classrooms and offices, a large hall, a snack bar, new bathrooms, several floors of parking, a press box with meeting rooms and stadium seating to watch events on the Eddie Hamada Track and Field. Take a quick tour »

Now that you’re up to speed, I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Wait, I know who Eddie Hamada is…” Well, of course you do, but, I’m not talking about the TRACK & FIELD… or the HALL which is separately named (Seto Hall)… or the COMPLEX as a whole (Weinberg Complex)… I’m talking about the STADIUM.

Kozuki Stadium (photo by Brandon Flores ‘90) is named after Kagemasa Kozuki, the chairmain and CEO of Konami Industries, an extremely successful video game developer and publisher. As the “Ko” in Konami, Kozuki built the company in the 70s and 80s developing several of the world’s most popular video games including, most notably, the arcade classic, Frogger. Since that time, Konami has continued to release quality games, many of which the Nintendo generation will recall, including Gradius and Contra among others. In recent years, Konami has found success in the interactive gaming community with the worldwide hit, Dance Dance Revolution.

And besides all that video game stuff, he is most importantly the grandparent of an Iolani student.

Well now you know…