The goal posts have been removed and there are no longer any football players in Cox Stadium.
It won't be long before all physical traces of the SF State football program slowly disappears from campus, along with the rich history of a 64-year-old tradition. "We were a powerhouse in the '50s and '60s and we were respected by other teams, people on campus and particularly people in the community," said Vic Rowen, head football coach from 1961 to 1989.
The football program at SF State was dropped in March to comply with the California chapter of the National Organization For Women's Consent Decree, which required all CSU campuses provide equal opportunity for women in collegiate athletics.
The decision was the final blow to a program that has suffered its share of budget cuts, lack of student support and humbling defeats. In fact, the Gators haven't produced a winning season since 1973. But things weren't always that way.
With only 49 male students enrolled in 1930, opportunities for a strong football program seemed limited. Nevertheless, the school hired David J. Cox., a local high school gym teacher and coach, to build the school's first sports program.
Cox was appointed to the physical education department in 1930 and football came a year later with Cox heading the team and Dan Farmer assisting.
Football got off to a slow but determined start that year. The Gators played Lowell High School, Sacred Heart School and Marin Junior College without scoring a single point. The Gators also lost their next game to Galileo High School 13-6, but history was made when Ted Goldman scored the school's first football points.
While the team could have used some improvement, the critics overlooked their deficiencies in an effort to encourage the new program. But they were somewhat less forgiving in 1932 when the Gators had another dismal season.
"OUTCLASSED-yes," the 1933 yearbook cried out. "The San Francisco State gridders stepped out of their class when they met four of the best junior college elevens and an equal number of first-rate teachers colleges during the 1932 season."
The result that year was seven losses and one victory. But the foundation for a football program had been laid.
"From 1931 to 1950, San Francisco State played football, but they played very small colleges and they usually lost more games than they won," said Sam Goldman, the sports information director from 1957 to 1972 and 1981 to 1984.
Cox went on to establish programs in track and swimming at SF State. In 1940, he was appointed full professor and served as the first director of the health, physical education and recreation department.
Assistant coaches Farmer and Hal Hardin took over Cox's position from 1935 to 1938, followed by Dick Boyle, who coached the team for three seasons until 1941. One of SF State's worst years came in 1942 under Coach Ray Kaufman when the Gators lost all six games they played. The only seasons football ceased throughout its 64-year tenure was in 1943 and 1944 during World War II.
In 1946, Coach Boyle returned to SF State for three years and continued to coach the Gators and make some impressive gains. But it wasn't until 1950, when a guy named Joe Verducci arrived on campus, that the Gators would taste the sweetness of a conference victory.
The reputation of the school helped Verducci recruit good players and good students. "San Francisco State was known as one of the premiere teacher-training institutions in the United States and one of the areas in which teacher-training was outstanding was in the area of physical training and athletics," Goldman said.
Under Verducci's leadership, the Gators compiled a 67-26-1 record. He was again selected Northern California Coach of the Year in 1957.
Henry Marshall, who played as a halfback from 1957 to 1960, recalls Verducci as being a great coach. During the time Marshall played, the Gators had won three Far Western Conferences, which included the program's first undefeated season of 1959.
"Many times people didn't know about SF State, but our football program was known nationwide," Marshall said. "It put the school on the map in the area and around the country."
Even though he was busy coaching, Verducci didn't restrict himself to the football field. He served a Mayor of Daly City and as a member of the City Council for 12 years. He died at age 53 in 1964 from a heart attack while playing handball with a colleague on campus.
"He's one of the greatest football minds in the country," Goldman said.
Rowen, who is now 75, used his extensive football knowledge to pick up where Verducci left off, winning five FWC titles in his first seven years as head coach. Mike Carson, who played for the Gators in 1963, is now a teacher at Mcateer High School in San Francisco. He remembers the final game of the season against Humboldt State.
"Vic Rowen gave a great speech at halftime," he said. "We were losing fourteen to nothing."
Then Carson threw the winning pass to Don Richardson to clinch the game, 21-16. Former star quarterback Bob Toledo, who holds the NCAC record for the highest number of touchdown passes (45) in a season, played on the victorious team of 1967. That same year, the Gators, who were 9-1, went to the Camellia Bowl for the first time.
Toldeo, now an offensive coordinator for the UCLA Bruins, said there's mainly one reason he chose SF State.
"I went to play for Vic Rowen," he said.
"The thing that really hurt us that put us back so we never recovered, was the student strike in 1968," Rowen said. "A lot of the kids quit the team and we had great difficulty recruiting players because of the turmoil on campus."
The next two decades proved to be difficult times as the Gators lost financial support due to budget cuts.
"People weren't as receptive to helping us as they used to be," Rowen said. "We had to sell hot dogs for a long time to make ends meet."
Rowen received several offers to coach elsewhere after the strike, but he felt that he owed it to the students who were playing for him to carry on.
Goldman agreed that the disturbances on campus added to the difficulty in recruiting players to a nonscholarship school. But the small turnouts for games were also discouraging.
According to Goldman, the 6,500-seat Cox Stadium has been filled only twice that he remembers.
"Once it was filled for a Joe Verducci Day when he was honored for 25 years of coaching, and one year when we played Chico State and beat them 7-6," Goldman said. "Besides that, except for graduation, Cox Stadium has never been filled."
Bill Dole, who now coaches football at Fresno State, assisted Rowen in coaching the 1978 team.
Even though he was only there one season, he distinctly remembers when several local merchants would help the team out with meals.
"The coaches set that up for the players at lunchtime. One day was pizza, the next day was Colonel Sanders fried chicken and one of the kids knew a meat producer that could supply cold cuts for sandwiches," Dole said.
The financial obstacles continued to strain the already weakened football program into the 1980s.
"The strike was the beginning and gender equity was the straw that broke the camel's back," Toledo said
The many Gators assistants and players that went on to coach football include Mike Holmgren, head coach for the Green Bay Packers; Floyd Peters, defensive coach for the Los Angeles Rams; Jim Sochor, UC Davis coach and LaVell Edwards, Bringham Young University coach.
Bob Lualhati, who is division dean of physical education and athletics at Skyline College, played under Verducci in 1953, 1954, 1957 and 1958.
Like Toledo, who came to SF State for Rowen, Lualhati came to SF State for Verducci and is glad he did.
"[Verducci] was a dynamic man who had a great way with young students," Lualhati said. "Those of us who were former players are now principals, administrators and leaders in education."
Goldman, who saw both Verducci's and Rowen's glory days as well as the program's decline, said SF State football should be remembered for what it did for the thousands of young men who passed through the program.
"Here you can say to yourself: 'We're not a football factory,' " Goldman said. "Many schools are nothing more than football factories. Their players come in, they play, and whether or not they graduate the school doesn't care, so long as they bring in the money and win championships with it. But at SF State, the football program was part of the educational institution."