Fire defense gets burned by Johnson and Hawaiians by Leo Zainea

The Hawaiians, no longer the barefoot, happy Islanders Haleloke used to sing about, went after teh Chicago Fire with machetes Wednesday night at Soldier Field.

Revenge was in their eyes, and they dismembered the Chicagoans with all the grace of a cross-eyed butcher.

The final score was Hawaiians 60, Fire 17, and it wasn't really that close.

Randy Johnson, another of those National Football League castoffs reaching super stardom at the expense of Chicago, threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns, and if the Hawaiians failed to exhibit a commendable running game, who cares.

Next year, if there is one in this Weird Football League, they get Calvin Hill from Dallas and he's no Reggie Sanderson.

In tumbling to its eigth straight loss, the Fire took a giant step in clunching a playoff sopt, too. Chicago is now 7-10, tied with the Hawaiians for one of those eight magical playoff spots pulled out of the hat by the blond bombshell, Commissioner Gary Davidson.

For Fire Coach Jim Spavital, ti was a look into the past that sickened him. Chicago whipped the Hawaiians 53-29 on July 28 in Honolulu, but neither team is the same now.

To rub it in, Hawaiians Coach Mike Giddings ordered an onside kick with a 46-10 lead in the third period and tried to defend it afterward.

"It was something we wanted to try last week at Portland," Giddings said. "You can't practice something like this during the week becuase of the chance of injuries. So we decided to practice it here."

"I know how that sounds," he added. "But Jim and his staff practiced some things against us last time."

What he is saying is that the Fire had tried to run up the score against his team, and Spavital could only reply: "Every dog has his day."

Spavital blamed too many dropped passes and the pin-pint passing of Johnson for the loss, which tied a WFL record for most points scored by one team. Memphis got 60 against the Hawaiians on Aug. 21.

"They'll [Hawaiians] never play another game like that again," Spavital said. "His passes were perfect, and our men, Charley Reamon included, couldn't have covered any closer."

Interjected Offensive Line Coach Joe Spencer: "The difference was they caught their passes, we dropped ours."