It has been 13 months since the University of Hawai'i paid Herman Frazier to vacate his position as its athletic director, ending a stay that was to have run to at least July 31, 2010.

But reminders of his turbulent five-year tenure linger like land mines on the Manoa campus, exploding into headlines with frequency lately.

Between the athletic department deficit, controversy surrounding women's basketball coach Jim Bolla, the struggles of the men's basketball team and June Jones' departure, Frazier's impact is still being felt.

Not quite in the ways imagined or promised when Frazier was hired in 2002. Back then, UH President Evan Dobelle touted Frazier as, "a true American hero" and someone "who will do great things for this university, this state. Someone who can lead without limits."

The current results, to this point, tell a much different story.

The school's Board of Regents were told of a $5.4 million accumulated deficit in the athletic department by an independent auditor, almost all of it acquired on Frazier's watch. Prior to his arrival in 2002, the athletic department had run at a surplus for at least six of the previous seven years.

Frazier's inability to run a solvent program, much less put away anything for a rainy day, has come back to haunt UH in these austere times. For the first time in decades UH has acknowledged that cutting a sport is a down-the-road possibility, though current athletic director Jim Donovan said it would only be as a desperation measure.

The loot from the Sugar Bowl, where Frazier made his last appearance as AD, allowed UH to avoid a deficit in his final fiscal year and pare down the accumulated red ink from $5.7 million.

Frazier raised eyebrows in 2004 when he hired Bolla, bringing the one-time Nevada-Las Vegas coach out of an eight-year separation from the college game to succeed Vince Goo. Then, three years into the deal, Frazier granted Bolla a four-year rollover scheduled to run through the 2010-11 season.

Now, for the second time in less than a year, UH is investigating allegations that Bolla mistreated a player. Because the Las Vegas Review Journal reported allegations concerning Bolla at UNLV in 1992 and 1996, you have to wonder what UH knew before Bolla was hired.

Meanwhile, the struggling men's basketball program has suffered for the late date Bob Nash was selected to replace Riley Wallace. Despite Wallace's departure being mandated a year and a half before the 2006-07 season, Nash wasn't hired until April 13, 2007, well into the recruiting period and it cost UH on several prospects, players it was in the running for and could have used both last year and this season.

Despite handing Frazier $312,510 in buy-out money, the controversies he left behind show UH is still paying handsomely for his term.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.