Four days later, and the glow still hasn't worn off.

The WAC championship victory by the University of Hawai'i Warriors was a thrill to watch — on TV or, especially, in the packed-to-the-rafters Aloha Stadium.

Beyond the sheer excitement of the game, UH supporters are reveling in a community celebration in which just about everything went right.

Overwhelmingly, the crowd heeded head coach June Jones' call for courtesy and behaved admirably. Considering how high emotions were running among 50,000 screaming fans, that's no small feat.

Jones himself resisted the temptation to pile on the score in the fourth quarter; he simply let the clock run down. That's a class act, to be sure.

One of the pleasures of watching and reading the news coverage after the game was seeing the freshly minted champions speak appreciatively of their teammates, without boasting of individual accomplishments. Colt Brennan, Davonne Bess, Jason Rivers, C.J. Hawthorne, Blaze Soares, all of the Warriors tapped after the game were generous in their praise of each other. That's the kind of teamwork that characterizes a winning spirit.

Such enthusiasm is supremely catching. It's easy to support a team that functions like one at every turn. That's why fans instinctively donned UH garb for days afterward, why the impulse of the jubilant crowd to rush the field after the game was so difficult to resist.

The uproarious group hug could have turned to mayhem, but it didn't. What the national TV audience saw was the culmination of a Cinderella story, the reward to athletes who worked hard, and believed.

It's not the end of the story, of course. In Saturday's season-ender, the Warriors face the University of Washington Huskies, with a chance to be the nation's only major undefeated team and to earn a coveted spot in a BCS bowl game.

Whatever the outcome, the Warriors have already become the pride of all Hawai'i.