First for NFL on Monday: allBlack officiating crew.
Toler broke color barrier by becoming NFL official
Did you ever watch an NFL game to cheer for the zebras?
Not to yell or swear at the officials, but to admire them?
That’s what Burl Toler Jr. will be doing Monday night. The Rams and Buccaneers will be playing, but it’s the seven officials who will have Toler’s attention.
All seven officials assigned to that game are Black. The crew: referee Jerome Boger, umpire Barry Anderson, down judge Julian Mapp, line judge Carl Johnson, side judge Dale Shaw, field judge Anthony Jeffries and back judge Greg Steed.
The all-Black officiating crew is an NFL first.
The first first? That was in 1965, when Burl’s dad took the field as the NFL’s first African American official. In fact, Burl Toler Sr. was the first minority official in any major North American pro sport.
Toler died in 2009 at age 81, but his legacy is ongoing. Five Black officials worked the 2019 Super Bowl. Now, on Monday night, the magnificent seven. Tolers all over the Bay Area will be watching with pride.
“It’s a big deal, it’s special,” said Burl Toler Jr., one of six children of Burl and Melvia Toler. “Long time coming, not that ( seven Black officials) had to work the same game, but the fact that there has been more and more diversity over the years in the officiating crews.”
Toler added, “I hope they ( the game’s TV producers) do this event justice. Everybody
tunes in for the game, primarily, but this is an important part of life that needs to be recognized, the fact that the NFL has come of age, I think, although begrudgingly, they’ve finally turned the corner. They’re trying to do the right thing.”
One of Burl Jr.’ s sons, Burl Toler III, was a wide receiver at Cal and played pro football in the United States, Canada, Germany and Italy, with tryouts with the Raiders and Washington. Now he coaches wide receivers and punt returners at Cal. He said that when he played, and now as a coach when he introduces himself to refs before games, they frequently do a doubletake.
“When I say ‘ Burl Toler,’ I kind of get that nod or look, and comments like, ‘ Hey, you’re not related to the Burl Toler Burl Toler, are you?’ There’s always that level of respect. . . I am honored to be his namesake, I definitely realize now just the opportunity that my grandfather created for others”
I attended Burl Toler’s memorial service. More than 1,500 people packed St. Ignatius Church on the USF campus. It became clear why he had been the perfect man to break the NFL color barrier. Like Jackie Robinson 18 years earlier, Toler needed much more than technical competency. He was reffing for a lot of people who were counting on him to provide dignity, pride and a chance for other minority officials.
He nailed it. Toler earned a reputation for operating calmly in eye of the hurricane. Art McNally, former NFL supervisor of officials, said, “He was a master at getting people who were up on the ceiling screaming, and bringing them back down again.”
Like John Madden, who told me how, as the Raiders’ head coach, he would roast Toler over a call. Madden could roast, he knows many swear words.
Madden said Toler would chuckle and say, “John, you’re something else!”
Toler, his 25year NFL officiating career aside, was a towering figure in Bay Area sports history and a social pioneer.
Born and raised in Memphis,
he came to the Bay Area in 1948 at the suggestion of an uncle who lived in Oakland. At 17, Toler enrolled at City College of San Francisco. In gym class, an assistant football coach suggested to the 6foot3, 210pounder that he give football a try.
First day, the coach put Toler at linebacker, in his gym clothes, no uniform. Toler had not played a down of football. First play, Ollie Matson got the ball on a dive. Matson, from Washington High and at the time considered the greatest prep runner in city history, and would go on to a Pro Football Hall of Fame career. Matson bucked through the line and Toler blew him up.
Run it again, said the coach. Toler nailed Matson again. And again. Then Matson tried a sweep. You guessed it. The coach gave Burl a uniform. Matson and Toler led CCSF to a 120 season and a national championship.
The two then went to USF and their 1951 team went 90, giving up 62 points all season. The Dons’ players, upon learning that a bid to the Orange Bowl was contingent upon leaving Toler and Matson behind, unanimously suggested where the bowl people could insert their invitation.
That USF team featured eight future NFL players, including three now in the Hall of Fame. Toler was the leader of the team and one of its best players, a twoway linebacker/ lineman. He was a ninthround draft pick by the Browns, but blew out his knee in the College AllStar Game. His football career was over. His playing career.
Toler became a ref, working college games in the West, which was the ceiling then for a Black ref. Pete Rozelle, the NFL commissioner, knew Toler well. Rozelle had been the sports information director at USF in ’ 51. Rozelle brought Toler into the NFL.
Toler retired as an official in 1990, and continued working as a league observer and grader of officials. He also taught physical education and math at Ben Franklin Middle School, now named after him, and became the first Black principal of a secondary school in San Francisco.
Burl Toler Jr. was 10 when his dad broke into the NFL as a ref. He recalls how proud the family was, but ...
“The disappointing part was that we knew we’d lose him for the weekends,” said Toler Jr., an architect and project manager. “Little did we know it was going to be 25 years, half of every year. We understood it was something he wanted to do, and I think deep down he probably thought it was something he had to do, to make a difference.”
He did make a difference. You can see it Monday night.