NEW ORLEANS — As the turnovers mounted, the penalties piled up and the sacks of a long since black-and-blue quarterback Colt Brennan accumulated on a night of deepening disappointment for the University of Hawai'i football team, a curious phenomenon played out.

The "Believe" signs remained aloft in the Superdome stands. The "Believers", high in the rafters and on the 50-yard lines, clung to an ideal along with their homemade placards.

The signs were hoisted and waved, not quickly used for seat cushions or immediately stuffed in nearby trash bins, until what became the bitterest of ends in a 41-10 Sugar Bowl blasting by Georgia.

On a night the Warriors lost for the first time in 13 games this season and were unable to deliver the historic exclamation point we had all wanted, it was clear they had long ago given us something else that was special. Not a Bowl Championship Series-stamped validation of their season to celebrate, perhaps, but a spirit still worth remembering and valuing all the same.

They had taught us to hang in amid long odds and persist in difficult if not seemingly impossible situations.

That is what the Warriors had given us this season. And it was something to behold on a night lacking in SportsCenter-worthy highlights, trophy case-building mementos or marriage proposals to cheerleaders.

The improbable journey of a season that resulted in 15,000-20,000 of their closest fans following them 4,000-plus miles did not have the deeply desired ending. It was a letdown on a major scale, a lost opportunity of large proportions.

But it had not all been for naught. Their season-long trek of 28,355 miles just to arrive on the grandest stage in Hawai'i athletic history had been accomplished by pulling out overtime games at Louisiana Tech and San Jose State. It had come with stirring comebacks against Nevada and Washington. Somehow they had come up with big plays and resounding moments when logic tried to convince us they were goners.

Each episode of which reinforced the underlying theme of this team and its season-long march straight to the heart of a state. It had fired the imaginations beyond their school and hometowns.

To be sure, they came against opponents a whole lot less formidable than the steamroller they had the misfortune of stepping in the path of last night. They did not involve the punishing presence of Sugar Bowl outstanding player Marcus Howard and his band who sacked Brennan eight times and cut the rhythm right out of what had been a prolific UH offense.

But during one of the longest regulation games in UH history, 4 hours and 5 minutes, on a night that seemed as interminable as the flight back home threatened be, fans hung with their team. They did it in the face of taunts from the Georgia faithful and undoubtedly flying in the face of the law of averages, too. Not to mention common sense as time ticked down. Mostly, however, they did it in ways we wouldn't have seen or could barely have imagined happening a couple of years ago.

This is what the Warriors gave us in this still remarkable season.

Not a milestone 13th victory or a shock-the-world spectacle but an enduring spirit. They passed on a belief in what can sometimes be accomplished when people of a shared purpose persist amid difficult circumstances. They imparted it to people who had never — or not recently — set foot in Aloha Stadium.

That will be as much a part of their legacy as the mountains of records they built.

If you can't have a Sugar Bowl trophy, it is still quite a gift to share.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.

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