LAS CRUCES, N.M. — When the University of Hawai'i football team goes on the road, it is liable to be called anything from the "Warriors" or the "Rainbows" or the "Rainbow Warriors."

Tomorrow here at New Mexico State, however, UH also will be known as "the island native people."

But, then, it will also be the first time a UH football game has been broadcast in the Navajo language.

Cuyler Frank, a senior communications major from Black House Valley, N.M., said, for broadcast purposes it will be game between the "cowboy farmers" (Aggies) and the "island native people" as he and broadcast analyst Wendell Murphy paint a word picture for some of the estimated 20,000 of his fellow members of the Navajo Nation who live in the broadcast area in the northwest corner of the state.

NMSU said it became the first university to have its games done in the Navajo last year when Frank, as the play-by-play voice, and two other students began the broadcasts. This year they are aired on two stations, KGAK in Gallup, N.M. and KADN in Farmington, N.M.

Frank said the broadcast is also available on the Internet through the school's website, www.nmstatesports.com, and clicking a button on the lower right.

The school began considering adding Navajo to the airing of its games in previously existing English and Spanish after hearing high school games done in Navajo at Gallup, where NMSU holds its fall football camp.

The idea hit home with Frank, a football fan who used to toy with describing plays in Navajo while watching from the stands. Now, he said, "It is a way to tell my people about the university and what happens here. I want to do the best I can to represent my people and I'm happy our language is being recognized."

Just as World War II Navajo code talkers in the film "Windtalkers" used animals and other things to express foreign concepts, Frank said he uses "working horse" to represent the role of a running back. And, "chief" to represent the quarterback.

Frank, who said he will go into radio upon graduation next year, does all NMSU football and men's home basketball games.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.