In the beginning, like so many heralded players from visiting schools, Marshall Faulk was booed in his debut at Aloha Stadium.

When the San Diego State freshman, who had set the NCAA single-game rushing record the month before, got a 4-yard gain off left guard — boo! A 3-yard run to the same hole — boo!

But by the time the night's exercise — for that is what it amounted to for him against the University of Hawai'i in 1991 — was over, Faulk was being high-fived by the once-loudly partisan fans in end zone seats. It was a place he came to know well in a 212-yard, five-TD performance.

No opposing player ever won over the crowds at Aloha Stadium like Faulk, but then the man who retired from the NFL yesterday might have been the most talented to perform on the turf there, too. Definitely the most productive.

In two appearances here against UH, he dazzled and dominated, running for a combined 385 yards and nine touchdowns. In three games against UH overall, there were 687 yards and 13 TDs, an NCAA record at the time.

When Faulk returned for the Pro Bowl as an NFL rookie in 1995, setting a record with 180 yards rushing to earn the Dan McGuire Award as player of the game, UH coach Bob Wagner feigned relief. "I knew it wasn't just us," Wagner said.

Indeed, Faulk did that to a lot of people in a 13-year NFL career that helped take the St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl title and left him ninth on the career rushing list and first among running backs in receiving yards.

Hard to imagine that barely anybody recruited him as a running back out of high school in New Orleans and the one that did, San Diego State, initially sought to redshirt the man who would become the first freshman to lead the nation in rushing and scoring. Had it not been for a mix-up in sending high school game tapes, Faulk might have ended up at cornerback. Nebraska, LSU and Texas A&M were among those pursuing him on defense where, on one tape, he had three interceptions in a game and ran two back for touchdowns alternating between split end and cornerback. But the tape the Aztecs got was of a different game, one in which he was a running back rushing for 200 yards and five touchdowns.

Yet even when this blessing fell fortuitously into their lap, the Aztecs never fully capitalized. SDSU was 19-15-2 in his three years and went to one bowl. Faulk's final game for the Aztecs was illuminating. SDSU had possession at the Wyoming 5 and passed — incomplete — on four consecutive plays late in the fourth quarter, losing 43-38 to cap a 6-6 season. Anyplace else, and Faulk might have left with bookend Heisman Trophies. Instead, Gino Torretta (1992) and Charlie Ward (1993) got them.

But against Hawai'i — and in Aloha Stadium — Faulk always seemed to put his best foot forward. Usually on the way to the end zone.

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