Customer Reviews

Undefeated, Untied, and Uninvited

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Kris Clark wrote a sincere and truthful version of a story that has been told to me numerous times by my husband, Gino Marchetti.
The loyalty of these teammates is something to be admired, and that loyalty exists to this day. When Gino and the guys meet----the years melt away. It is wonderful to see their story in print and to remember the football years at USF.

As a USF alum, I was familiar with the 1951 football team. When I first announced to my dad that I was going to the University of San Francisco, he responded with, "Burl Toler, Ollie Matson, Gino Marchetti, Bill Russell, K.C. Jones." Over the years, I have had the opportunity to meet some of these gentlemen, their teammates and classmates. I was excited when I first heard about this book. The "word of mouth" history would finally be documented. In most instances, the spoken word has a tendency to be exaggerated. However, as I read about the feats of this team, I discovered that the words never adequately addressed the accomplishments of these gentlemen. I have observed first hand the cohesiveness that is the hallmark of this team. They like each other and that is the one attribute that is stressed throughout the book. Their admiration for each other is evident. They were a unit that worked together to carve out their own niche in the annals of history. They achieved what the rest of the country in that era could not fully comprehend - equality, humanity. Most of the story is a compilation of the news clippings which may disappoint some readers. However, for this reader, it was an affirmation of the reality. When I finished the book, I smiled a bit broader and stood slightly taller. I am so proud to be a USF alum and to know that those who preceded me at the University were men of honor, morality and courage.

I read this book in one sitting. I could not put it down. It covers the end of a forgotten and lightly regarded era of college football. In the 16 years between 1936 and 1951 five independent California colleges (Santa Clara, St. Mary's, College of the Pacific, University of San Francisco, and Loyola University of Los Angeles) ranked in the Associated Press top 20 a total of 11 times. Santa Clara won two Sugar Bowls, an Orange Bowl and was the only team to defeat Bud Wilkinson's 1948 Oklahoma juggernaught. The 1949 COP team had a backfield of 3 future pro players (Eddie Le Baron, Eddie Macon, and Tom McCormick), was undefeated over an 11 game schedule, and averaged 52 points a game. The 1950 Loyola team put 7 players into the pros including Gene Brito (a defensive end for the Redskins, Richard Nixon's favorite football player, and an NFL Hall of Famer). But the crowning achievement of the era was the 1951 USF team. And this book is about them.

No other college team in history even comes close. Ten players made it to the NFL. Three are in the NFL Hall of Fame: Ollie Matson of the Cardinals and Rams and the only man other than Jim Thorpe to achieve All-American in football and win an Olympic Medal in Track and Field, Gino Marchetti of the Colts - the greatest defensive end of all time, and Bob St. Clair the greatest tackle in the history of 49er football. If this team had been named Oklahoma, Notre Dame, or Florida State they would still be singing songs about them.

But the real story in the book is about courage and integrity.
The football program at USF was in danger of being discontinued because the small Jesuit school could not afford the cost of maintaining a big time football enterprise. A bowl bid might have saved the program. But even though the team was undefeated and untied no bowl bids were going to be offered unless the two black players on the team stayed home. This involved the contemporary racial politics of the South. The school and the team declined the condition and the next year USF dropped the sport.

Kris Clark has done an absolutely beautiful job putting this book together. It is well written, wonderfully researched, and engaging. I really recommend this book even if you are not much of a sports fan. The story and the characters will stay with you forever.

This book has a "Field of Dreams" and "It's a Wonderful Life" feel to it due to the courageous selflessness and undaunting unity displayed by the players on the unbeaten University of San Francisco gridiron juggernaut. I am also delighted to see a book about some of the great and often unheralded teams of the old Catholic Conference of California.

My cousin Fran Hare played three times against USF, including the brilliant 1951 squad led by the running heroics of the incomparable Ollie Matson and the defensive excellence of Gino Marchetti and Bob St. Clair. Fran's older brother, the late Vern Hare, was on the 1948 Santa Clara team which upset Oklahoma in 1948. He was a teammate of the great Hall of Fame end Tom Fears, who played both at Santa Clara and UCLA.

When I lived in Los Angeles and was a sports editor I talked to all kinds of people associated with Loyola football, a school which put on the field stellar future pros such as Gene Brito, Skippy Gincanelli and Don Klosterman. Loyola had a great team in 1950 which lost only one game, a 28-26 upset at home in Gilmore Stadium against Santa Clara.

Yes, and there was also St. Mary's located in the San Francisco suburb of Moraga. In the thirties the Gaels had one of the nation's premier football coaches in Slip Madigan. In perhaps the school's finest gridiron hour, the Gaels defeated USC in 1931 at the L.A. Coliseum, 13-7, the only blemish on Howard Jones's team's record as the Trojans recovered from that reversal to win the national title with what historians called one of the premier college teams of the early era.

The competition was intense and many of the players from these schools went on to National Football League glory. What galled a lot of us was that many of these players and their schools failed to receive the national credit they deserved. This fine book detailing a superb team from a richly endowed grid era corrects that aforementioned deficiency. The recognition is highly deserved!

Run - don't walk - to the nearest bookstore and get your copy of this dream of a book. Kristine Setting Clark's latest is not only a great read, it's an inspiration...and a reminder to all of us living in these troubled times that each moment one of us bravely steps forward and takes that seemingly lonely High Road, that he or she not only models the heroic, they relight the fire in our hearts that events in this world so often extinguish; even 51 years down the road. A must-read.

Kristine Clark has captured the spirit of a football team that stood up against the racism of the 1950's and said "NO",to the
Bowl Game invitation that predicated it's bid on leaving the two
black players behind.This true documentary should stand as a
monument to those players on the 1951 UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO
football team who put their principles against racial discrimination before their individual athletic careers. The
author brilliantly brought out the unknowing effect that this
decision would make on the rest of their lifes.

This book is easy to read and is organized chronologically with some background on the school and the program and then a a game by game rundown of the magical '51 season for the dons.

The book uses newspaper clippings to summarize parts of the season and some great photos of the games and programs are also part of the book.

The book indicates that the dons were excluded from a bowl bid more by the color of two of their stars than by a weak schedule and that the team decided to accept this rather than play without members of their team.

If this is accurate, they are heroes for their integrity and not just their athletics.

The book tells a wonderful story of one of the teams that was truly great and that few fans have ever heard of. It also will give you a trivia question that will stump most of the experts: What is the only college team to ever have three members in the hall of fame?

I was very excited to see read this book. I learned of the story of the the '51 Dons as a student at USF and I could not wait to read about this amazing team. I must say I was disappointed with what I received. The book is essentially a collection of newspaper articles recounting the games and other columns describing the team. I was hoping for some more insight to the players and the coaching staff during this golden age of college football.

The story of the '51 USF Dons is an amazing story. In a time of racial inequality, these men were colorblind and worked together as a team to accomplish their goals. This story is begging to be told and while Undefeated, Untied and Uninvited does provide more insight into the true story of the Dons, it only begins to scratch the surface of the true story.

This was a remarkable story about `the greatest team you never heard of `. 10 of the players on the University of San Francisco Dons made the NFL and 3 became Hall of Fame players. The school's publicity manager was Pete Rozell, future Commissioner of the NFL during its peak growth period. One of their best players was injured before he played in the NFL but became the first black official of any professional sport; he officiated for 25 years.

Well, why hasn't anyone heard of them? It was because of racial discrimination from the outside, and that's what the story is about.

This would make a great movie. You couldn't make this story up! Is anyone in Hollywood paying attention?

I was doing research on the wonderful story of small Washington & Jefferson college going up against the mighty Cal in the 1922 Rose Bowl-with a black quarterback nonetheless! I thought this book would be a good addition to my research. However, the book cost me over [money] with tax and the book is SKIMPY! Thin to begin with, the book is mostly filled with photographs and reprints of newspaper articles and letters. It would have made a good article for PARADE magazine or a newspaper but I felt it fell short as a book.