Hawai'i lost one of its most devoted sports fans and sweetest souls when Chiz Shoji, whose oldest son Dave coaches the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team, died at home Monday morning of natural causes. She was 87.

"Cheerful Chiz" was perpetually upbeat, always ready with a smile or giggle. The laughs could be on her, another trait that endeared her to friends she often met through athletics. Chiz became a serious sports fan and learned to golf and bowl almost as a form of self-preservation after marrying Kobe Shoji in 1944.

He was a "Sweet Bear" of a man who grew up on a lemon farm in Upland, Calif., and was a gifted athlete. Chiz, a tiny woman from nearby Chino, met Kobe when both were sent to a relocation camp in Arizona. They married in camp before he went overseas with the legendary 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Dave was born soon after Kobe returned. Tom, the volleyball coach at Willamette University, and Kelvin, director of development for the University of Hawai'i's Koa Anuenue, came soon after and Chiz was in for a lifetime of spectator sports, whether she liked it of not. She learned to love it.

There was Little League and Pop Warner, and her sons excelled in high school and college sports before choosing athletics as a career. Kobe and Chiz saw nearly every game they played. With Kobe, a respected agriculturalist, traveling the world to teach people to grow sugar cane, Chiz became the boys' most loyal follower, shuttle driver and nurturing influence.

"She used to do it on her own a lot with dad gone," Kelvin said. "She persevered. ... She was always there."

And always upbeat.

"It was never about you've got to win or be really good," Tom said. "It was just play and have fun. When we'd come home it really didn't matter to them whether we'd won or lost or were on a good team or any of that. We were the ones who might have over-reacted when we lost a game.

"We'd really run mom ragged handling three boys who were into everything. She did a great job though."

The Shojis settled here in 1949 when Kobe got a teaching position at UH after earning his Ph.D. from UCLA. They would live in Iran and Puerto Rico and travel often for Kobe's work, but from then on Hawai'i was home and UH athletics a huge part of their lives.

Dave, who has guided the 'Bows to four national titles, starts his 35th season next month. His parents have seen the majority of his 1,158 matches and also followed Tom's teams on annual trips. The Shojis were UH season ticket holders for football, women's and men's basketball, baseball and followed softball and their six grandchildren's games.

One of Dave's most vivid memories of his mother is simply seeing her in the crowd, happily surrounded by friends.

"She saw a lot of games," he said. "She was so fun to be around, such a positive person. She never had a bad thing to say about anything or anybody."

Chiz loved to travel with Kobe and shop, and learned to enjoy golf, with her regular group at Oahu Country Club, and bowling in the 442nd league. But mostly she loved friends and family. Playing sports and, especially, watching sports allowed her to be around the people she loved.

"She had a young spirit," said Amelia Andrade, who was nearly 30 years younger than Chiz, but golfed with her for 30 years at OCC. "She was funny. She didn't take herself too seriously, had a good sense of humor. The first laugh could always be on her."

Her sons confirm that. They teased her about her high handicap and "ugly swing." She not only took it, she teased herself. She never weighed more than 100 pounds, but made up for a lack of length with great accuracy and dutifully kept score on the string of beads she always wore.

"She'd make fun of herself, do silly things," Tom said. "You'd play golf with her and she'd say, 'I got a 10' and she'd be laughing. She never got mad. She always had something really positive to say no matter what happened.

"It was always her taking care of us. No matter how old we were, she was always concerned with how we were doing."

Added Andrade: "She didn't take anything too seriously, other than her family."

Services for Chiz Shoji will be private. She will be buried with Kobe at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.