Thanks to Coach John Murio for turning me on to the saga of his San Francisco boyhood hero ... you chose wisely Coach, you chose wisely! R
2/19/2011 - Surrounded by his family at his home in Los Angeles, California, one of the greatest American athletes (Matson is one of only three men to win an Olympic Medal and also go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the other two are Jim Thorpe and Bob Hayes), Olympic sprinter and NFL Hall-of-Famer Ollie Genoa Matson II passes at the age of 80 as a result of dementia complications involving respiratory failure.
In Action
Ollie Genoa Matson II is born on May 1, 1930 to railroad brakeman Oliver Matson, and school teacher Gertrude Matson, in the small east Texas railroad town of Trinity. As a youngster growing up, Matson sadly sees his parents separate and then divorce. Living with his mother and twin sister after his parents part, when Matson is in junior high school the family moves to Houston (the football he plays with is a tin can wrapped in rags), where Gertrude finds love again and gets married for the second time. Two years after setting down in Houston, the family is on the move once more, this time transplanting to the bustling California port city of San Francisco, where the youth becomes interested in playing football after following the career of an uncle that plays on a semi-professional team. Matriculating at George Washington High School (built for $8 million and featuring murals depicting George Washington's life painted by Russian-American artist Victor Mikhail Arnautoff, the Richmond District school opens in 1936 and overlooks the Golden Gate Bridge ... along with Matson, among its notable alumni will be poet Maya Angelou, Jefferson Starship singer Marty Balin, tennis player Rosemary Casals, gold medal swimmer Ann Curtis, actor Danny Glover, Grammy winning singer Johnny Mathis, and Miss America Lee Meriwether), Matson shows off his potential athletic greatness playing end, halfback, and defensive back for three years as a varsity Eagle. Sidelined breaking his ankle in 1945, to stay in shape for football, his head coach advises the running back that he should take up track too. Indifferent to the sport at first, Matson soon becomes obsessed with the elements of running and becomes nationally recognized as a scholastic sprinter and quarter-miler (as a senior, he will break the world interscholastic record for the 440-yard dash, putting down a 47.8 second run to best the previous mark of 48.2 seconds, has a 100-yard dash speed of 9.6 seconds, and almost qualifying for the 1948 American Olympics team, he finishes fourth in his specialty, and vows to be a part of the team in 1952), and he also does a little pole vaulting when his coach isn't watching. In 1947, San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter Don Shelby will state, "Matson gives every indication of being the hottest thing San Francisco high school football fans have seen in quite a spell." And he is right, reaching his adult size, Matson as a high school senior is a 6'2," 220 pound package of muscle and speed capable of going around, over, or through opposing players, becoming an All-City running back while setting a city record by scoring 102 points in only seven games. Matson will soon come to be known as "Mercury" Matson and he is just getting started!
High School Football
High School Track
Enrolling at San Francisco City College in 1948, Matson's presence on the Rams football roster is instantly felt as Ollie sets a junior college record by scoring 19 touchdowns in a single season, while leading the team to an undefeated record, it's second junior college championship, and being named a first-team All-American Junior College halfback. Many major university scouts drooling at the prospect of Matson playing for their squad, the youth instead decides to remain in San Francisco and enroll at the University of San Francisco, a small private all-male Jesuit university sitting on a 55-acre campus between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden State Park (their enrollment at the time is just over 1,200 students), an institution that makes Matson feel comfortable and at home (his mother wants him to study hard and become either a doctor or a dentist). Thinking he might try basketball next (with legendary center, Bill Russell leading the way, the USF basketball program will win the NCAA national championship in 1955 and 1956), Matson decides to concentrate on football while at the university (he also becomes a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity), and makes the varsity team in 1949 (the Dons are 7-3 for the year, as the squad scores 260 points while allowing only 144, a 10-0 loss to Tulsa at Tulsa is their worst defeat of the season ... Matson scores seven touchdowns, one on a run of 92 yards and is selected as a member of All-Coast Team and a Catholic All-American), 1950 (the team is 7-4 for the year, scoring 291 points while allowing 181 and gaining revenge on Tulsa by beating the Golden Hurricanes 23-14 at home ... Matson scores thirteen touchdowns in his junior campaign and once more is selected as a member of the All-Coast and Catholic All-American teams) and 1951, a team that is considered one of the greatest college squads of all-time, a band of brothers that becomes know for being "undefeated, untied, and uninvited."
The University Of San Francisco
1949 & 1950 Programs
In his senior year as a USF Don, Matson will be part of a legendary 33-man team that has a magical year. Under the guidance of Joe "The Barracuda" Kuharich (a former player for Notre Dame and the Chicago Cardinals, and a coach with a resume that will one day include jobs with Notre Dame, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Chicago Cardinals, the Washington Redskins, and the Philadelphia Eagles) and chief assistant Brad Lynn, the 1951 USF squad features nine individuals that will be drafted by the NFL; along with Matson there is 6'7" tackle Bob St. Clair (a 1990 member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame credited with blocking ten field goals in 1956, he is known as "The Geek" by teammates for his penchant for eating raw meat), legendary 6'4" defensive end Gino Marchetti (a 25-year-old U.S. Army veteran of WWII that experiences the Battle of the Bulge as a machine-gunner, he is discovered tending bar ... after he finishes playing for the Dons, he goes on to have a pro football Hall of Fame career that includes two championships with the Baltimore Colts, 11 All-Pro selections, 11 Pro Bowl selections, one interception, 13 fumble recoveries, 2 touchdowns, and a place on the NFL's 1950s All Decade Team, and the 50th, 75th, and 100th All-Time Anniversary clubs), 6'0" guard Louis "Red" Stephens (an honorable mention All-Pro, he will play five years for the Washington Redskins before going on to be a line coach for Kuharich at Notre Dame and a scout for four years with the Philadelphia Eagles), quarterback Charles Edward Brown (twice making the Pro Bowl team, he will have an 11-year career with the Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Baltimore Colts, he will be the UPI Comeback Player of the Year in 1963), 5'11" end, 190-pound end Ralph Thomas (he will have a five-year career with Chicago Cardinals and Washington Redskins), safety Joe "Scooter" Scudero (he will be a CFL All-Star in 1953 and make the Pro Bowl in 1955 while having a seven year professional career with the Toronto Argonauts, the Washington Redskins, and the Pittsburgh Steelers), 6'5" tackle Mike Mergen (he will be drafted by the Chicago Cardinals), and team captain and linebacker Burl Abron Toler (a member also of the junior college championship team that Matson plays for in 1948, Toler is chosen in the 9th Round of the 1952 draft by the Cleveland Browns, but hurts his knee in that year's College All-Star Game <a 10-7 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams> and never plays a down in the NFL ... however, he does go on to become the NFL's first African-American official, and as such, has a 25-year career calling penalties on the pros and also becomes the first African-American to officiate a Super Bowl game). And the publicist of the team is 25-year-old Alvin Ray "Pete" Rozelle, who will go on to become the commissioner of the NFL in 1960 (he will be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1985). Coming together as a team, the 1951 Dons bond in the classroom, on the training field (Kuharich will annually take his team 170 miles north of San Francisco to the town of Corning, where one practice is run with the thermometer registering 112 degrees), at football practice, and as the players experience the racial animus that comes at Matson and Toler (on a trip to Oklahoma, the pair are not allowed to stay in a hotel that only caters to their white teammates, so the whole team moves to another place that takes both white and black players, and they do the same when restaurants refuse to serve the men). 
St. Clair & Marchetti In The 1958 NFL Championship Game Against The Giants
Playing Defense
Just a taste of what is to come, service in the United States Army takes Matson away from the NFL for it's 1953 season, but that doesn't mean it is a year with no football for the private who spends time playing on a squad out of Fort Ord and in a vote of over 16,000 soldiers is named by Army Times as a first team All-Army selection and is chosen as the team's MVP. In 1954, Matson is back with the Cardinals, and continues what becomes an NFL Hall of Fame career. For the most part wearing #33, Matson will play fourteen seasons in the NFL (with the Chicago Cardinals, the Los Angeles Rams, the Detroit Lions, and the Philadelphia Eagles ... sadly, the closest he ever gets to playing for a title is finishing 2nd in the East to the 1956 New York Giants with a 7-5 record), rushing for 5,173 yards and 40 touchdowns, catching passes for 3,285 yards and 23 touchdowns, returning kickoffs for 3,746 yards and six touchdowns while being an All-Pro selection seven times and a Pro Bowl selection six times (when it was still really a game, Matson will be the contest's 1956 MVP, leading his East team to a 31-30 victory on a 15 yard touchdown run, taking a punt return downfield for 50 yards, and scoring on an even grander punt return of 91 yards). When he retires in 1966, Matson is tied for second place for longest kickoff return (105 yards), is first in most touchdown kickoff returns (six), and is second in total yards gained in a career (12,844 yards, behind only Jim Brown). As a Cardinal, he will set team records for yards gained in a season (924), yards gained rushing in a single game (163), most rushing attempts in a career (761), most rushing attempts in a season (192), longest kickoff return (105 yards), most kickoff returns in a career (86), most kickoff return yardage in a season (1,956), and most touchdowns in a career (50). As a Los Angeles Ram, Matson will set a record for most rushes in a game and will have the second most proficient gained yardage day against the Chicago Bears in 1959. And of course, there is the BIG trade of 1959. General Manager of the Rams by 1959, Pete Rozelle, looking to improve his team's record from the previous year (8-4) and catch the Baltimore Colts, remembers Matson from the days with the USF Dons, and trades for him ... a nine player deal in which Matson goes to the Rams for tackle Frank Fuller, defensive end Glenn Holtzman, tackle Ken Panfil, defensive tackle Art Hauser, end John Tracey, fullback Larry Hickman, halfback Don Brown, the Rams second pick in the 1960 draft (which becomes Duke guard Mike McGee), and the fourth round pick in the 1960 draft (which becomes Marquette end Silas Woods). Career completed, Matson will be chosen as a member of the NFL's 1950s All-Decade Team (the other halfbacks are Frank Gifford, Hugh McElhenny, and Lenny Moore), gets inducted into the Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame, and becomes a member of the Arizona Cardinals Ring of Honor in 2006.
With football finally in the rear-view by 1966, Matson begins the "retirement" phase of his life which still includes lots of the game he loved playing. Matson will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972 (he will be presented by his college coach, Joe Kuharich, who will state Matson is "... an All-American, an All-Pro, and the type of man that brings glory to each and every one that has ever been associated with him."), inducted into the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame in 1976, inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1983, and inducted into the California High School Football Hall of Fame in 2022 (Matson is also a member of The Pigskin Club of Washington D.C.'s National Intercollegiate All-American Football Players Honor Roll). Among the jobs Matson does while no longer lugging a football about are scouting for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1966 to 1968, teaching P.E. classes at Los Angeles High School and serving as a Roman head football coach (a school my parents both attended long ago and where my Dad once played and coached), coaches the running backs at San Diego State University, and for ten years, he is the special event supervisor for the Los Angeles Coliseum, a job from which he retires in January of 1989. For Matson though, the most important role he has is that of husband and father. Insuring that his children will grow up protected and safe, and know right from wrong, Matson becomes "The Man," not only for his family, but also for other relatives, the neighborhood children (when Matson is traded to the Rams, he and Mary will buy a home they live in for the rest of their lives) and the youths he coaches. Rarely if ever does he get angry and he seems to have a smile and a handshake for everyone he meets. Among his joys are barbecuing, organizing an annual ping-pong tournament, working in his garden, and listening to his collection of albums featuring Johnny Mathis (a classmate and friend from his San Francisco days), Dinah Washington, and Sam Cooke, and while he can still remember the games, getting together with former teammates and opponents to hash over their accomplishments on the gridiron when they were young (until both fall prey to dementia, Matson's best friend will be the legendary Hall of Fame Baltimore Colt tight end, John Mackey). And he takes great pride in helping his mother get the very first African-American float in the 1964 Rose Bowl parade (he of course, pays for the whole thing).
Ollie & Mary
Kuharich
St. Clair & Marchetti In The 1958 NFL Championship Game Against The Giants
Kezar Stadium
With the bigger universities in California unwilling to risk their reputations against the USF team, Kuharich puts together a season of opposition from wherever he can find teams willing to face his charges ... for the 1951 season, the Dons will play San Jose State, the Camp Pendleton Marines, the San Diego Naval Base, and Santa Clara, at their home field of Kezar Stadium (an outdoor athletics stadium built for $300,000 in 1925 capable of seating 50,000 people ... it is named for the Kezar Family that gives a gift of $100,000 to the San Francisco Park Commission for its construction in 1922), while road games take the squad to Boise, Idaho, San Jose, California, New York City, New York, Stockton, California, and to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California for a contest against Loyola, and they will play the San Jose Spartans twice, once at home and once in San Jose. Kicking off the season with a home game on September 21, the Dons beat the Spartans 39-2 before a crowd of 16,000 fans, with Matson scoring on touchdown runs of 54 and 45 yards (by the end of the season, the Dons fans will be singing "Good Night, Irene" and waving handkerchiefs at the opposing team in the fourth quarter of games). The next team to be knocked off is the Idaho Vandals, 28-7, behind three touchdowns from Matson, one of which is after a 64-yard run in which he reverses direction twice, The Marines of Camp Pendleton fare no better the next week, getting zipped 26-0 behind two Matson touchdown runs of 14 and 55 yards. San Jose up again, the Spartans lose even worse to the Dons in San Jose, going down 42-7, as Matson runs for 195 yards on 25 carries (a 7.8 yard average), scores three times (and has a fourth, 53-yard ramble called back). Then the Dons travel cross-country to face the Fordham Rams at Triborough Stadium in New York (Fordham is 3-1 at the time with victories over Missouri, Dartmouth, and Boston College), winning their closest game of the season 32-26 as Matson returns two kickoffs for touchdowns (94 and 90 yards respectively), along with scoring on a six-yard dive play (he will have 302 total yards for the game), a contest that Pete Rozelle drives legendary east-coast sportswriter Grantland Rice to so that the Dons will receive the proper coverage in the next day's papers. The U.S. Navy by way of San Diego is the next roadkill USF defeats, handing the naval base football team a 26-7 pounding behind Matson's 249 yards on 29 carries, while he also breaks up ten pass plays on defense. The following week, Santa Clara goes down to the Dons by the exact same score behind three touchdowns and 229 yards from Matson, playing in his last home game for San Francisco. Playing the Pacific Tigers at Valley Bowl in Stockton, California, the Dons win their 8th game of the season, 47-14, with Matson scoring two of his team's seven touchdowns gaining 175 yards on 29 carries. And closing out November, on a Sunday afternoon at the Rose Bowl, San Francisco gains it's ninth win of the season, besting Loyola by 20-2, with Matson gaining another 112 yards while scoring two more touchdowns.
L-R, Toler, Brown, Marchetti, Matson
A Matson Carry Against Fordham
Matson Scores
Undefeated
It is a wonderful, 9-0 season, and riding the Southern Pacific Daylight train back to San Francisco (a nine hour journey), the team downs celebratory beers and sings along as nose guard Vince Tringali (ukulele) and linebacker Dick Colombini (accordion) provide the music to "Up A Lazy River" and the team's unofficial theme song, legendary bluesman Lead Belly's (Huddie William Ledbetter) "Good Night, Irene," fully expecting to be invited to a prestigious holiday bowl game (there are only eight bowl games in 1951). But there is an odious surprise waiting for the team when they get back to San Francisco. Meeting with Coach Kuharich shortly after getting off the train, the Dons are told that they have indeed been invited to play in Florida's Orange Bowl with one huge caveat ... they are invited to play Georgia Tech (the Yellow Jackets are 10-0-1 in 1951) if they leave their two black players, Toler and Matson home (in a time of Jim Crow before Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Gator Bowl president Sam Wolfson has conspired with the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl to come to an agreement that none of their games will feature any teams with black players). And then the team shows it has as much class and character as it does athletic ability, maybe even more considering the times ... instantly angered, Marchetti screams "Hell No! We ain't going without Burl and Ollie," and without a thought or a moment of hesitation, the team unanimously roars their concurrence (the 8-1-1 Baylor Bears will get the bid instead and will later lose to Georgia Tech by a score of 17-14). And so it is that the undefeated and untied University of San Francisco Dons, a 9-0 squad that has outscored it's opponents, 338 to 86 (beating teams by an average score of 31-8, they will only be ranked #14 in the final AP poll of the season), a team that holds opponents to net rushing average of 52 yards a game, a group that will have nine players drafted by the NFL (with five of them making at least one Pro Bowl squad and three going into the Canton Hall of Fame ... something no other college team can still claim) stays home for New Year's Day, 1952 (already financially burdened to the tune of being $70,000 in arrears, the school will back the team, but without the revenue that a bowl game would have produced, two days after the team decides the Orange Bowl can go to hell, the University of San Francisco disbands it's football program). And though Matson is selected for his All-American performance (for the season, Matson leads the nation in rushing with 1,566 yards <four yards short of the then single-season NCAA best> and scoring with 21 touchdowns) he too is slighted ... he is not a "unanimous first team selection and on some lists, he makes the squad not as a running back, but as a pass defender, and in the balloting for the annual Heisman Trophy as the best college player in the nation, Matson finishes in 9th place, losing to Princeton's single-wing star back, Dick Kazmaier (he is a phenomenal athlete himself, lettering each year in high school for football, baseball, basketball, track & field, and golf, his the last Heisman to be won by single-wing back, and the last that the Ivy League produces), who leads the Tigers to an undefeated season by throwing for 966 yards and thirteen touchdowns while also rushing for 861 yards and nine touchdowns (Matson will also be behind Hank Lauricella of Tennessee, Babe Parilli of Kentucky, Bill McColl of Stanford, Johnny Karras of Illinois, Larry Isbell of Baylor, and Hugh McElhenny of Washington).
Kazmaier
Not Ollie
His career as a college football player over, Matson does no brooding over the missed bowl game or personal accolades, instead, he concentrates on the challenge he gave himself four years before, especially when he is told by a coach he has taken too long of a layoff ... making the U.S. Track & Field Team as a sprinter before the next Olympic Games. Egged on by the words of Stanford track coach Dink Templeton (who is chosen to also coach the Olympics track team), Matson practices, practices, and practices even more. By June 27, 1952, when the trials for the U.S. track team begin in Los Angeles, California at the Memorial Coliseum, Matson is ready. Running a 47.3 in the 400 meter event, Ollie finishes in third place and makes the Olympic team. The XV Summer Olympics begin in Helsinki, Finland on July 19, 1952 (in the NFL draft of 1952, Matson is the third pick overall, selected by the Chicago Cardinals after the L.A. Rams take quarterback Bill Wade of Vanderbilt and the New York Yanks choose Cal linebacker Les Richter, and just before the Green Bay Packers take Kentucky quarterback "Babe" Parilli ... wanting to concentrate on the matter at hand, Matson will wait until the Olympics are over to sign his first pro football contract). Matson's run at Olympic glory begins on Thursday, July 24th, with two 400 meter runs that take the running back into the semi-finals field with a time of 47.53 seconds. The next day, Matson has two more runs, putting down a best of 46.94 seconds in the finale to win a bronze medal behind the 46.09 time of Jamaica's George Rhoden and the 46.20 time of Jamaica's Herb McKenley. Leading off for the United States' 4x400 meter relay team (the group is composed of Matson, Gene Cole, Charlie Moore, and Mal Whitfield), Matson races again on Saturday as the United States qualifies for the Sunday relay finals with a time of 3:11.05. On Sunday, the team wins a silver medal by posting a time of 3:04.0 (the U.S. will have a slight lead when Matson passes the baton to Gene Cole for the second leg of the event), just a tenth of a second away from the gold that Jamaica wins posting a World Record time of 3:03.9 (the Jamaica team is composed of Arthur Wint, Les Laing, Herb McKenley, and George Rhoden). Mission accomplished, the bronze and silver medals that Matson takes home from the competition will be the most prized accomplishments of his athletic career because as he states, "In the Olympics you're competing against the best there are. It isn't the Iowa State Fair. It's the world championship."
Dink Templeton
The U.S. Team Marches In
L-R, McKenley, Rhoden, Matson
Back in the United States, mostly playing defense, Matson is just in time to perform in the 1952 College All-Star game at Soldier's Field in Chicago on a rainy Friday night against the the world champion L.A. Rams, the collegiates losing by a score of 10-7 before over 80,000 fans. Then Matson is off to the training camp of the Chicago Cardinals (now coached by Matson's college mentor, Joe Kuharich). Getting into all 12 games of his initial season in the NFL (he will start seven), Matson will share the 1952 Rookie of the Year Award (and he will also make his first Pro Bowl team and be named to the 1st Team of that year's All-Pro squad) with fellow future Hall of Famer, San Francisco 49er Hugh McElhenny (the ninth pick of the San Francisco 49ers, McElhenny will record the lonest run from scrimmage on an 89 yard scamper, goes 40 yards to score a touchdown on his first NFL run, has the longest punt return on a 94 yard run, and averages seven yards per carry) by rushing for three touchdowns, catching three touchdown passes, taking two kickoffs in for scores (one on a hundred yard run and one on a return of 79 yards), and rumbling 34 yards with a fumble for another touchdown, while also intercepting two passes. Sadly though, despite Matson's efforts, the Cardinals will finish the season with a dismal record of 4-8 (the team is now the Arizona Cardinals), finishing in fifth place of their six team conference and failing to make the playoffs (Cleveland will head the American Conference with an 8-4 record). All-America selection, graduating from college with a Bachelor's Science Degree in History, a first round NFL selection, two Olympic medals, named one of the rookies of the year, and a first team selection to the Pro Bowl and All-Pro teams, 1952 is also the year that Matson will marry his high school sweetheart and take Mary L. Paige as his bride (the couple meet at a local Baptist Church social as teenagers and will be married for over fifty years in a union that produces four children, two daughters, Lisa Lewis and Barbara King, and two sons, Ollie III and Bruce ... the family will be Matson's proudest accomplishment in life).
All-Star Program
McElhenny
Cover
Ollie
Running For The Rams
Hall Of Fame Induction - L to R - Clarence "Ace" Parker,
Ollie Matson, Gino Marchetti, Lamar Hunt
Meeting With President Nixon - L to R - Bruce, Barbara,
Nixon, Matson, Mary, And Mary's Mother, Mamie
Sadly though, Matson's accolades come as a result of playing college and professional football in a period of bad officiating (to a large extent, the players police themselves), limited teams, poor pay (most of the players have off season jobs to make ends meet), inadequate equipment (leather helmets and primitive face masks, and few rules protecting the players (clothesline tackles are okay), and as good as he is, for many there is a price to pay for getting burped. Popped one too many times, Matson will develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE, a progressive degenerative disease brought on by too many concussions and blows to the head) and begins losing his memory in his later years (he is one of 110 out of 111 former players found to have the disease). Progressively worse and worse, Matson will wash each of the family's four cars every day, begin barbequing for dinner at 6:30 in the morning, gets lost driving home from Hollywood Park (a locale he'd been visiting for years), becomes unable to differentiate between a $10 bill and a $100 bill, and forgets what year he went into the Hall of Fame while signing autographs for fans. In the last five years of his life Matson is confined to a wheelchair or his bed and barely speaks more than to say "Hi" or "Bye" to any visitors. Surrounded by the people he loves (the exception is his wife Mary, who passes away on Tuesday, February 6, 2007), Ollie Genoa Matson II passes away from respiratory failure brought on by his dementia complications in his Los Angeles residence (the home has now been designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument) at the age of 80; he is survived by his twin sister Ocie Thompson, his four children, eight grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. Rest in peace #33 ... you were special!
Recovering From A Concussion
Mr. Matson
