Burl Toler Set For Induction into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF)
April 21, 2008
(San Francisco) - USF Legend of the Hilltop Burl Toler is set for induction into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame during the 29th Annual Enshrinement Banquet to be held Monday, April 21, 2008 at the Westin-St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Toler is the fourth member of the Dons storied 1951 football team to be enshrined by BASHOF, joining NFL Hall-of-Famers Gino Marchetti, Ollie Matson and Bob St. Clair.
Acknowledged as perhaps the best player on a team featuring four eventual NFL All-Pro selections and three who would later be enshrined in Canton, Toler suffered a career-ending knee injury in the 1952 College All-Star game against the then Los Angeles Rams. In a strange twist of fate, Toler became a top NFL official and in a 25-year career worked multiple playoff games, including Super Bowl XIV.
In addition, Toler served his alma mater in a variety of capacities including a stint on the USF Board of Trustees. Toler worked for 17 years at Benjamin Franklin Middle School in San Francisco as a teacher and later served as the district's first African American secondary school principal. The former Ben Franklin Middle School campus, now the home of two charter schools, was renamed in his honor on October 22, 2006.
During the 1951 college football season, the San Francisco Dons team finished with a 9-0 record and average 33-8 score, the best of any team in the nation at that time. They received a Bowl bid but with one stipulation: they had to play without their African-American teammates, Ollie Matson and Burl Toler, as college football was not fully racially integrated until the 1970's. The team promptly declined the bid and as a result of financial losses, the University had to drop its football program.
On January 1, 2008, the 1951 Dons were recognized with a dedication ceremony at the Fiesta Bowl Center and Museum in Scottsdale, Ariz., with the induction of a Dons team jersey as a permanent display to commemorate the Dons belated bowl bid.
Toler becomes the eighth former USF athlete or coach to be inducted into the BASHOF. Basketball's KC Jones, Pete Newell, Bill Russell and Phil Woolpert also were elected by a panel of 70 Bay Area journalists and broadcasters.