Delaware State football team misses flight to Hawaii for season opener

The Delaware State Hornets are stuck scrambling after missing a flight from New York to Honolulu for their football opener.

John F. Kennedy International Airport is three hours from the Delaware State campus. While the team’s game against the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors is not until 6 p.m. Saturday, the team wanted to fly out Tuesday to acclimate players to the six-hour time zone difference.

“So we get these guys some time off and pack and get ready to go because we leave at 4 in the morning. … You know we got to drive to JFK, which is three hours away. And then we got a direct flight, which is another 10.5 hours,” Delaware State coach Lee Hull said on the weekly Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference coaches call, according to HBCU Gameday.

Wertz Motor Coaches, contracted to drive the Hornets to JFK, accepted blame for the missed flight.

“Today, August 20, 2024, an internal scheduling malfunction in our reservation system led to a delay in picking up the Delaware State University football team. … We deeply regret the disruption this caused to the team’s travel plans,” the company told HBCU Gameday in a statement.

The team expects to arrive Wednesday.

“What everyone doesn’t realize is (Tuesday) was an extra day. It was almost like an extra travel day. We’re still arriving on time, per what we told Hawaii,” a DSU spokesperson told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Delaware State will be the first historically Black college or university to play in Hawaii in over 40 years. The Rainbow Warriors last played an HBCU school in 1979, when they routed Prairie View A&M 65-0.

Saturday's Delaware State-Hawaii contest is part of Week 0, a small set of games played a week before the rest of college football starts.