The story of Burl Toler is one of perseverance as his accomplishments in football paved a path for future generations.
One day, Toler was outside playing basketball when one of the football coaches from the City College of San Francisco came up to him and asked him to play football. The coach asked Toler to get on the field to tackle the team’s best running back, Ollie Matson, and he tackled him on his third try. They became best friends.
Later, he transferred to the University of San Francisco where the team went an undefeated 9-0. The team was selected to go to a bowl game only if they left Toler and Ollie Matson behind.
Burl Toler’s son, Martel Toler said, “Back then, the bowl game was in the South, and the whole team said, “If our two players, Ollie and Burl can’t come, we’re not going.”
Toler was drafted in the 9th round but before he got to play in the NFL, a knee injury in a college all star game ended his career.
Despite this setback, Toler was still determined to make his way to the NFL through another way: officiating.
His career started when he officiated college games. In 1965, his career as an NFL official started in 1965 when he was hired as a head linesman. This made him the first African American official in any major professional sports league.
Martel said, “He (Toler) said if he has a chance to become the first that he knows that he would not have been the last.”
He officiated in the NFL for 25 years, including officiating Super Bowl XIV in 1980, and the 1982 AFC Championship Game also known as the “Freezer Bowl” due to the game being played at -9 degrees with a wind chill of -59 degrees.
After his officiating career, he worked as a teacher at San Francisco’s Benjamin Franklin Middle School as a teacher, coach, counselor, and principal. He was the first African-American secondary school principal in the Bay Area. The school closed in 2006 and reopened as the Burl A. Toler Campus, which became home to two charter schools.
Scott Chisea, Track and Field coach, said, “He had a tremendous impact, not just in sports but in history, even in the world that rejected him, and he still came back and broke barriers.”
Additionally, he was on the Board of Trustees at USF from 1987 to 1989 and was a game observer for the NFL for eight years.
Aiden De Souza ’26 said, “He was a role model for the kids he coached and helped the next generation become passionate about sports.”
In 2008, he was inducted in the Bay Area Sports Hall Fame. Toler died in August of 2009. His legacy and impact on the sport of football is one that is still felt today and will be remembered for generations to come.
Martel said, “He was a man of many sayings, but he always said that, ‘show me a person that has not made a mistake, and I’ll show you a person that’s never made a decision’.”
He continued, “He was always a pioneer and you know even to this day, when I drive around San Francisco, I see buildings, whether it’s at USF that bear his name . . . [and at] Franklin, now changed to the Burl Toler Campus. So, yeah, he still continues to inspire me, and I’m sure other people will see him and know his story.”
