George, who played in the King Kamehameha Pigskin Classic June 11 in Honolulu, also competed with teammates in the “Hawaiian Olympics.”

Pared against a team from north Texas, the Kansas-Missouri team won every event except one in which players had to search through a pie plate of whipped cream to find a frozen piece of bubble gum. The players had to unwrap the bubble gum and blow a bubble.

In other events, players competed in a relay game, “Dizzy Izzy” and “Hawaiian Fear Factor.”

During the relay game, players had to run back and forth between two stations, each time adding another item to their wardrobe, whether it was a grass skirt, a bikini top or a snorkel. The players also had to carry a boogie board.

In the Dizzy Izzy contest, athletes circled around a bat 10 times and then ran 50 yards to the finish line.

“It was funny because no one could run back straight,” George said.

For Hawaiian Fear Factor, the football players had to eat food such as sushi, Cajun shrimp, a coconut pudding and poi, a food made from roots. Poi, George said, resembled brown gravy in appearance.

“It didn’t have any taste at all and it was really thick,” George said. “It was really hard to eat.”

As for the pudding, George said it was more like gelatin.

George’s team registered the fastest time in the fear factor competition.

On the gridiron

The 2006 Tonganoxie High graduate also played a little football while in Hawaii.

Teams practiced two days before games were played June 11.

Each squad played two games, each consisting of two 12-minute quarters.

The Kansas-Missouri team won both its games. The squad defeated Nebraska-Tennessee, 6-0, and East Texas, 8-0.

Overall, 11 teams played in the event. Teams that won both their games won medals, as Kansas-Missouri was one of two or three teams to win both games, George said.

Other squads competing were Oklahoma, Kentucky-Georgia, Montana-North Dakota, Ohio-Indiana, South Texas and East Texas.

George said the talent at the football classic was mixed.

“I think it was kind of sporadic,” George said. “Some teams seemed like they had really big guys and other teams they didn’t have hardly anybody.

“There were some pretty good guys out there.”

While competing in Hawaii, George got to know two players from Wamego and a handful of outgoing seniors from Harrisonville, Mo.

George played against the Wamego players, Matthew Manor and Justin Sly, in high school

When George was a freshman, Wamego tripped THS, 32-12, in Tonganoxie, but the Chieftains returned the favor the next year when THS prevailed, 40-13.

And, George played with Harrisonville’s Zach Kendall, who will play for Kansas State in the fall.

Sightseeing

A self-proclaimed history buff, George and his family visited Pearl Harbor shortly after arriving in Honolulu early June 7.

George and his family made it to Pearl Harbor about 6 a.m. and already there was a long line outside the museum.

“They had a torpedo that didn’t explode,” George said, referring to the weapon found after the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese invasion of the harbor. “They had one of those in there.”

The museum also showed several before and after photos of Pearl Harbor from that time.

“This boat was here and this is what it looked like after the invasion,” George said.

George also mentioned he thought the harbor would be larger.

He and his family also took a ferry to the USS Arizona memorial in the middle of the harbor.

Later in the day, the family did more sightseeing throughout the island of Oahu and visited the North Shore, a large beach where many surfing movies have been filmed.