'51 Dons (2014)

Directed by

Ron Luscinski

Genre

documentary film, American football film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary tells the story of the 1951 San Francisco Dons football team. They chose to skip a bowl game rather than leave their Black teammates behind. The film shows how that stand affected the players and the sport.

informativeinspirationalearnestreflectivehistoricalrespectfullow-keystraightforward

What happens

'51 Dons is a 2014 American documentary film directed by Ron Luscinski and written by Luscinski, Tom Davis and Danny Llewelyn. Narrated by Johnny Mathis, it covers the 1951 San Francisco Dons football team and its unique stand against racism. The team, including future NFL players and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees Bob St. Clair and Gino Marchetti, declined an invitation to play in the Orange Bowl that would have required them to leave their African-American players Ollie Matson and Burl Toler home. This act was one of the contributing factors that led to the end of organized football at the University of San Francisco. The university's athletic news director, Pete Rozelle, went on to become the commissioner of the NFL, where he reshaped American football. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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