Magnum Mania!

I've always been drawn to the episodes that feature Magnum's athletic pursuits, many of which were at the time, fairly obscure: beach volleyball, triathlon, surfski paddling. I especially like that, despite being an extremely fit former Navy SEAL, he always seems to underachieve. I don't feel so bad when I do the same. Anyway, I thought I would try to document Magnum's results in the annual Molokai to Oahu Surfski race.

I found his finishes referenced in three episodes: Curse of the KKC, Did You See The Sunrise, and Letter to a Duchess. Here they are...

1980: 58th out of 268 contestants.
Early in "Curse of the KKC" Higgins says there are 279 entries, but during the course of the show one dies and 10 more drop out. This episode aired in early 1981, but we have to conclude the race took place in 1980 due to results mentioned in "Did You See the Sunrise".

1981: 86th or 87th.
In "Did You See the Sunrise" Mac says "last year" he came in 87th. In "Letter to a Duchess", Rick says he came in 86th. Both agree he finished behind 12-year-old Kiki Kahuna.

1982: 62nd.
This would have been the race he is preparing for in "Did You See the Sunrise". We never saw the race in the episode but the results are mentioned in "Letter to a Duchess". Odds on Magnum were 100-1.

1983: 17th.
Early in "Letter to a Duchess" Rick says, "two years ago he comes in 86th, last year he was 62nd". TC adds, "And both times it was behind a twelve year old girl, Kiki Kahuna." He ends up finishing 17th at the end of the episode. Odds on Magnum were 30-1.

Thats all I have. Were there any more results mentioned in seasons 5-8?

Nice work Henry. I think one of the reasons they never had Magnum do really well in any of the races was to help show he was a regular guy with faults instead of an action hero. That's just my opinion however.

i agree, i was thinking the same thing.

Great work! I love when people research things like this.

In my opinion I think it's pretty realistic that he wouldn't do great in these races. If I'm remembering correctly his SEAL days were at least five years behind him when he first came to the estate. Even though he had stayed quite active, he wasn't training to be the best, he did it because he enjoyed it. And his junk food habit wasn't doing him any favors either.

I also agree that this is one of the great things about the show. Think how dull it would be if he was the best!

Henry Lewis wrote:Thats all I have. Were there any more results mentioned in seasons 5-8?

Not for the Molokai to Oahu race, but he did win the "Countdown to Forty, The Magnum Four-Mile" race (in Season Seven's "Forty"). The race was rigged by T.C. and Rick, but still... he won!