John Nakamura was proof you don’t have to have a big mouth to make a big impact on others.
You just need a big heart.
“He was a true icon within our program, ” University of Hawaii softball coach Bob Coolen said. “Being around since the inception of the sport (at UH ) in 1985, he was a players coach—few words but impactful.”
Nakamura died March 12 at The Queen’s Medical Center after a short illness. He had just celebrated his 89th birthday last month.
“He was still active, playing softball up to a year ago, still driving, ” said his daughter Lynn. “He seemed fine until just a couple of weeks ago.”
The longtime UH softball assistant coach also coached Kailua to a state high school baseball championship in 1969 and played baseball at Manoa in the 1950s. He was honored with a moment of silence at UH’s doubleheader against Cal State Northridge on Saturday at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
Nakamura was a teacher in the DOE for 28 years. He was also officially affiliated with the UH softball team for 22 years—mostly as a paid assistant, but sometimes as a volunteer coach. In addition to UH and Kailua, he coached baseball and softball at McKinley, Kahuku, Castle, Kalani, and Punahou.
He pitched and played outfield on too many teams to count.
“He played the game masterfully, said Farrington baseball coach Eric Tokunaga, who was the Punahou softball head coach with Nakamura on his staff. “He was Hawaii’s Warren Spahn in the way of his delivery.”
Nakamura would never compare himself to a Hall of Famer.
He was a successful player at UH and with Moiliili in the Hawaii Baseball League and Asahi in the AJA league, followed by many decades in softball. But Nakamura said he got the most satisfaction from helping other players develop to their full potential—which makes sense, since that was what he liked about teaching, too.
“Having a positive influence on players I’ve coached, ” was his most memorable experience at UH, according to a bio on the softball team’s web page.
He often accomplished this with just a few softly spoken words of advice to a player who was struggling.
“I referred to him as the Yoda of our program, ” Coolen said.
Lynn said her sister, Jan, joked that their father spoke in bumper stickers.
“I think some of the players used to call him Mr. Miyagi, ” Lynn said.
That’s especially interesting considering that Pat Morita, who played the famous “Karate Kid ” character, sponsored one of Nakamura’s senior softball teams, Blue Banyan.
“He even played in a few games, ” Nakamura said in an interview with Ed Hidano, one of the players on his 1969 Kailua team.
Nakamura was born on Maui and grew up at the Puunene sugar plantation. He graduated from Baldwin High School, where he lettered in track and football before realizing he also had baseball ability.
He didn’t intend on playing baseball at Manoa, but ended up on the team almost by chance, and performed well enough as a left-handed pitcher and speedy outfielder to earn a scholarship.
Later, Nakamura received a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in the Philippines.
True to form, Nakamura mentioned that significant achievement only in passing during his interview with Hidano, which was for a reunion book last year commemorating the 55th anniversary of the Surfriders’ 1969 championship.
Future San Francisco 49ers star Russ Francis was a member of that Kailua baseball team. At Kalani, one of his players was Roy Gerela, who also won Super Bowls as a Pittsburgh Steelers kicker.
In his next chapter, his return to UH, Nakamura went from coaching youngsters to coaching a coach. He taught Coolen, who is now the winningest head softball coach—by far—in the program’s history, how to adjust to the islands.
“He took me under his wing when I arrived and told me how I needed to embrace the culture and understand ‘Hawaii Time’ in all my facets of life since I was an East Coast boy and wanted things done yesterday, ” Coolen said. “He was so true in his words of wisdom to me.”
It didn’t seem to matter where they were from, or how old they were. Nakamura had a few helpful words for anyone.
“He taught history, too, but his passion was as a PE resource teacher, ” Lynn said. “He’d cover all the different elementary schools. He’d teach the kids, but also teach the teachers how to teach fitness.
“A few years ago he told me he was lucky, that he was blessed and that he had a good life.”
