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60th Anniversary of the 1951 Dons Football Team
San Francisco Athletics Welcomes Back 1951 Dons Football
For 60th Anniversary
USF Celebrates One of College Football’s Most Legendary
Teams
PHOTO GALLERY
More than 15 members of the 1951 Dons were in attendance, including former NFL players Joe Scudero, Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Bob St. Clair and Ralph Thomas.
Although the USF campus is almost completely unrecognizable, the bonds between the teammates and the team and the university endure.
1951 Dons
Football Team Members in attendance
Dick Arnoldy, Roy Bruna, Dick Colombini, Ed Dawson, Eugene
DeMartini, Dick Domeno, John Dwyer, Bill Henneberry, James Madden,
Hal Sachs, Vincent Sakowski, Bob Schaeffer, Joe Scudero, Bob
Springer, Bob St. Clair, Ralph Thomas and Jim Whitney.
ABOUT THE 1951 DONS FOOTBALL TEAM: Even by standards of the day, this was a, small unlikely juggernaut. The 1951 squad featured a roster of just 38 men – with many of them playing both offense and defense – under the direction of head coach Joe Kuharich (who later coached in the NFL and at Notre Dame). The Dons posted an unbeaten, untied, uninvited season in 1951. At 9-0 and ranked in the top-10 nationally, USF was offered an appearance in the Orange Bowl - but only if they left their two African-American players (Ollie Matson & Burl Toler) at home. The team refused and USF dropped big time football because it could no longer afford it. Nine players off the team played in the NFL, Five were named NFL All-Pro and three - Matson, Bob St. Clair and Gino Marchetti - are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame – the most ever enshrined from a single team. Pete Rozelle, who was the team publicist became the NFL Commissioner, engineered the NFL/AFL merger and created the Super Bowl and Monday Night Football. Toler became the NFL's first African-American official.
