This past Saturday morning, a very conspicuous woman, the kind who really likes being conspicuous, made her way through the crowded Honolulu Airport, cell phone in hand, talking so everyone could hear.

She had two tickets to the football game, seats on the 12-yard line, and she was about to catch a plane. "Hmm, wonder if someone wants them?" she wondered out loud repeatedly.

The TSA crew at the security screening area looked as if they were deciding if they should take her out or become her new best friends. Some of her fellow travelers seemed to be considering changing their travel plans.

It is hard to think of another time when so many people in Hawai'i were united in a common theme.

The victory is particularly sweet for the legions of devoted UH football fans, the ones who bought season tickets during all the lean years and during the "Ho! Some expensive now!" years, the ones who take their children to watch practice and grow ti-leaf plants in the backyard for game-day purposes.

But what has happened this season is like a statewide conversion, a call to faith. Call them fair-weather fans, sure, but another, more favorable label might be "skeptics who were won over by proof of performance." There has been a lot of big talk and hype during the June Jones tenure, but nothing wins critics over like winning.

More than a few Sunday morning sermons were about the Saturday night win. Certainly, there were a number of life lessons that could be gleaned from the football game. Who has not found themselves figuratively 21 points behind, bewildered and a bit discouraged? The Warriors showed how to get your head back in the game while you're still in the game, not in hindsight after the opportunity has passed.

The UH team also symbolizes other personal battles; rising up despite a troubled past, making the best of limited resources, believing in yourself when others are shaking their heads and casting aspersions. Anyone who has truly struggled in life has respect for those who refused to give up. It is the hardest thing and the most important thing, in sports and in everything.

As for the lady at the airport tantalizing everyone in earshot about her two up-for-grabs tickets, an announcement came over the loudspeaker: "Attention passengers. Would the female passenger with the tickets to tonight's game please return to the Aloha Airlines ticket counter? Mahalo."

She was probably already on her flight, but some guy from baggage handling was chasing his dream.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.