It was, to put it mildly, fandemonium. In the mid-1990s, University of Hawai'i sports enthusiasts found a much-needed success story in an unlikely source.

Men's volleyball took over as the center of Hawai'i's sports universe as frenzied fans flocked to a recently opened arena enthralled with their newly discovered obsession.

"Especially for a sport like volleyball," former UH coach Mike Wilton said. "Clearly everyone knows the big sport is football, and it's going to get a lot more attention. But what men's volleyball accomplished ... People say men's volleyball was clearly THE sport at UH in that era."

And right in the middle of it all — and helping to generate the buzz — was outside hitter Yuval Katz.

"I think he was the best hitter that I've ever seen in collegiate volleyball," Wilton said. "He had great skill, had the appropriate shot for each situation. He did not make a lot of errors, and that is always key as a good hitter. He was exceptional. I don't know if I saw anybody with better court vision than he did.

"Many times I'd see him dig a ball and fall on the floor and still get the set, and hit the ball without an approach and still be really dangerous."

Katz's arrival at UH coincided with the first year of the Stan Sheriff Center, then called the Special Events Arena, in the 1994-95 season.

"That was the first year we moved into the arena. (Former assistant coach) Tino (Reyes) and I went in during Christmas time and we'd look around, and think we would have 500 or 900 people in Klum gym (to watch the men's games), and how would it look with that many people in the arena," Wilton said.

He didn't need to worry. In 1996, Katz's second and final season, UH sold out (10,225 tickets) five times.

"Those first years were a magical deal and (Katz) was key in developing the excitement that permeated it," Wilton said.

With mediocre-to-average showings from the school's big three sports: football, baseball and basketball during Katz's years at Manoa, fans needed a success story to cling to. From tweens to their grandparents, they flocked to men's volleyball.

The team's average attendance jumped from 692 in 1994 (in Klum Gym) to 3,532 in 1995, then more than doubled to 7,630 in 1996.

"Players had to be smuggled out of the arena," Wilton said. "It was crazy. It was an amazing and wonderful experience."

Katz remembers staying up to an hour after matches signing autographs and taking pictures with fans.

"It was impossible to sign and take pictures with all the fans that were waiting; there were so many," Katz said in an e-mail from Tel-Aviv, where he lives with wife Orna, a marketing manager for an Israeli magazine. "But we did the best we could. I never took the laundry cart to get away from fans but I heard the stories.

"UH is one of the best places in the world to play at. Every athlete wants to play in front of large crowds and to be appreciated."

In a 1996 Advertiser story, staff writer Ann Miller wrote, "Seemingly sane adults camped out overnight — and nights — for tickets."

She went on to say, "... the pitch of the crowd was so highly distinctive, glass — somewhere — must have shattered."

Former UH outside hitter Aaron Wilton called the mass hysteria "exhilarating."

"The best part was playing at home and having people so supportive and screaming and so happy and excited to celebrate for you and with you," he said. "It was something that to this day, is still with me."

He called Katz "the best offensive college player that I've ever seen."

"Mind you, what I've witnessed is fairly limited, but his serving was phenomenal and his success rate was unbelievable, and that was in the time, if you hit the net it was an error. Since then servers have had the ability to let loose and swing harder; back then you didn't have that option.

"He was a dominant server, and his offensive abilities were off the chart in my opinion, and he was a pretty good blocker as well, and in the two years he worked on his floor defense as well."

Katz, who stopped playing volleyball four years ago and is working as a senior investment manager in an investment house while finishing up his MBA, still misses Hawai'i, misses "the people, the beauty of the islands and of course the Special Events Arena (now known as the Stan Sheriff Center) on a game night," he said.

"I get on a daily basis messages on Facebook from people from Hawai'i telling me how much they enjoyed watching me playing and it's been 13 years since I left," Katz said. "I think it's a huge compliment (that) people still remember you after such long time."

Surrounded by high-caliber players such as Jason Ring, Jason Olive, Aaron Wilton, Nikolas Berger, Gavin Cook, Dan Fisher, Mason Kuo, Sivan Leoni, Naveh Milo, Erik Pichel, Rick Tune and Curt Vaughan, Katz stood out.

"Aside from Yuval we were a very balanced team, but he was a heavy counter balance, and if he wasn't on the scales, I don't think we would have been as successful without him," Aaron Wilton said. "That came to fruition the year after he left. Granted, he and Erik were no longer on that team, but for the most part the rest of the parts were there, and we didn't make it to playoffs."

After two years with the program and little left to accomplish in Hawai'i — the left-hander shared AVCA Player of the Year honors and led Hawai'i to an NCAA Finals appearance in 1996, and is tops in the single-season record book in kills, kill average and kill attempts — Katz decided to pursue a professional career.

He has been back a few times, the last in 2000.

"I had the best two years of my life in Hawai'i," Katz said. "I will always miss Hawai'i and remember it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience."