Kyle Whittingham has made a good habit of recruiting a number of Pacific islands, like Hawaii, in an effort to better his Utah football program, which he thinks is the most diverse in college football, with a substantial byproduct of giving Hawaiian athletes scholarships and other benefits that go alongside playing P4 football.
“We’re almost exactly one-third African-American, one-third Polynesian, one-third Caucasian,” Whittingham told The Athletic. He further said the Utes would continue recruiting Hawaii hard. “It is definitely one of the more primary places in our recruiting footprint. Moving to the Big 12, we don’t expect that to change at all.”
He added that he’s traveled to Hawaii 200-plus times and he “loves it” over there: “Not only have we recruited [Hawaiians], but they’ve had a great deal of success while they were in the program.”
There is sad, near-tragic irony, then, in that his niece, Kristi Whittingham, recently was, according to witnesses on the scene, intentionally hit by a male driver on a famous stretch of two-lane road that runs, in part, across Oahu’s North Shore.
Here’s what happened: Two weeks ago on Wednesday, in the early evening, 27-year-old Kristi Whittingham, Kyle’s brother Brady’s daughter who works for the Utah Jazz and lives in Bluffdale, was walking with a group of friends, most of them from the Salt Lake City area, across the Kamehameha Highway. As she crossed the street, an oncoming car sped up as it approached her. When the driver did so, she turned around to retreat to the original roadside. The car then swerved across the middle of the pavement, toward the pedestrian, hitting her, clipping her left leg, opening a significant wound and leaving her in a heap, crumpled and bleeding. As the driver slowed, then accelerated by, refusing to stop, he yelled profanities at the victim.
Onlookers called for an ambulance and police.
This is what Kristi said after the perilous event, from her Honolulu hospital bed, after she had undergone surgery to repair tendons and sew in four layers of stitches:
“I remember crossing the street and realizing that the car was coming a lot faster than it looked before. It seemed as if it was speeding up toward me. I quickly pivoted to go back to the other side, but the car swerved into me and the headlight hit the inside of my knee. The shock of the whole situation blocked out the pain. My main priority was to remain calm and control the bleeding knee until the ambulance got there.”
Witnesses of the collision, including Kristi’s Utah friends, said a police officer informed them that auto-pedestrian accidents on parts of Oahu have been on the rise of late, especially ones involving tourists. The ambulance that came to Whittingham’s aid was just returning from a separate auto-pedestrian collision.
News reports from Honolulu indicated that police were searching for a dark-colored, four-door sedan with damage to the car’s front end. At present, the male driver has not been identified. Investigators are still searching for leads.
I do not know if what the officer told witnesses is true, if anyone on Oahu is being targeted in hit-and-runs.
Maybe this was the case of a lone wolf, a deranged individual who looked to do harm for some sick purpose. The question remains: Who speeds up a car, turning it directly toward an innocent pedestrian in swimwear, dropping F-bombs at the victim as he accelerates by?
Brady Whittingham offered up a substantial financial reward for anyone with info to find the perp, as multiple witnesses agreed that the collision was both avoidable and intentional.
To reiterate, a specific motive remains a matter of conjecture. If what the police officer on site said is true, if some Native Hawaiians really do feel taken advantage of, or if there is anger there among some for whatever reason, for Kristi Whttingham to be a target would be especially caustic and absurd. Kyle Whittingham, as much as any football coach, has done what he could to provide opportunities for Hawaiian athletes, recruiting them in large numbers for Utah football to the mutual benefit of program and player. As he said, a good number of those athletes have thrived at Utah.
He’ll go on recruiting them as long as he coaches the Utes.
Whatever happened two weeks ago on that Oahu two-lane for whatever reason, the most important aspect to this story is that after being designated by doctors as being in “critical condition,” Kristi Whittingham is recovering. Her parents arrived shortly thereafter to comfort her and bring her home. Equally important is her attitude regarding the accident. She, too, wonders why anyone would purposely plow a car into her. And while she understands more than ever that, yes, life can be dangerous, she’s doing her best to put the whole thing behind her, dousing it with remarkable grace and gratitude as she heals.
“The accident keeps replaying in my mind,” she said. “And even though it was very scary, the main feeling I get thinking back on it is … gratitude. I feel so lucky to be alive and be surrounded by so many people I love.”
