HONOLULU – The EasyPost Hawai‘i Bowl has renamed its Most Valuable Player award after Hugh Yoshida, the former University of Hawai‘i Athletics Director who was instrumental in the creation of the bowl game with ESPN Events in 2002.

The top player from Saturday’s EasyPost Hawai‘i Bowl between San Diego State and Middle Tennessee will receive the Hugh Yoshida Most Valuable Player Award.

The Hawai‘i Bowl Foundation renamed the award in recognition of Yoshida’s accomplishments and service to the community. Beginning this year, only one Most Valuable Player award will be honored. In the past, an MVP for each team was recognized.

Yoshida currently serves as the Secretary of the Hawai‘i Bowl Foundation and the Chair of the Hawai‘i Bowl Executive Committee, helping to steer over $1.6 million to Hawai‘i charities since its inception.

In addition to the renaming of the MVP Award, the Hugh Yoshida Grant was created and earmarked for the Extra Yard for Teachers fund. Yoshida has had longstanding relationships with various Hawai‘i public schools with a passion to coach and teach Hawai‘i’s youth.

Yoshida became the first Athletics Director of Japanese-American descent in Division I athletics and spent nearly a decade as Hawai‘i’s AD from 1993-2002. During his tenure, he was instrumental in the funding of the Nagatani Academic Center while outsourcing the department's academic services to the College of Arts and Sciences, both of which saw the immediate rise in academic success of UH's student-athletes.