Dick Colombini, Sonoma County contractor, member of famed USF football team, dies at 91
Dick Colombini, a widely beloved Santa Rosa native and owner of a landmark construction company, cherished the game of football — and his special connection to it.
Colombini, who died March 23 at the age of 91, for 70 years delighted in retelling the story of the 1951 Dons of the University of San Francisco, one of the most extraordinary teams in the history of football. Colombini, earlier a standout athlete at Santa Rosa High School, was among the 33 players on the ’51 Dons undefeated varsity team.
Though indomitable on the field, Colombini and his teammates are hailed mostly for what they did after they won every game by an average score of 33-8 and then were invited to the Orange Bowl in Florida — only to be told by bowl sponsors that the Dons’ two black players, stars Burl Toler and Ollie Matson, would have to stay home.
Colombini, a natural storyteller whose eventual day job involved constructing schools, banks, churches, stores, office buildings, wineries and other significant structures throughout Sonoma County and the region, said often that there was never any doubt what the Dons would do.
They said no.
“Ollie and Burl were our teammates,” Colombini said in 2011. “We went to school together. We practiced together. We played games together. We did everything together. Now they want us to leave two players home? We said that it was not right, and we refused to do so.”
“It was no question in our minds.”
After passing on the Orange Bowl, Colombini and his teammates endured another bruising hit.
The football program at their small, private, Jesuit college was in financial trouble even before it forfeited the dollars that would have flowed from the Miami bowl appearance. Shortly after the close of the ’51 season, USF eliminated football.
But Colombini deemed that the disappointments heaped on by his college football career were dwarfed by the myriad positives, and all his life he stayed true to the game.
One great source of pride to him was his Monday Night Football Club. He started it in the 1970s, limiting it to nine friends who took turns hosting dinner and drinks on game night.
“He loved it, and he took it seriously,” said his wife, Angie Colombini.
Said club member and longtime friend Mike Keefer, “Usually we watched the game a little, and we talked about what was going on in our lives and we solved the world’s problems.”
Another club member and close friend, Carlos Rivas, said of Colombini, “He loved football, but he loved the camaraderie even more.”
Keefer and Rivas said separately that one of Colombini’s finest qualities was his honesty, in business and in all aspects of his life. Keefer said that trait contributed to Colombini’s penchant for being entirely frank and forthcoming with people.
“You knew where you stood with Dick at all times,” Keefer said. “And he didn’t mind telling you what he thought.”
Keefer can laugh now when he recalls what Colombini, who was quite a bit older than he, told him after he suffered a demoralizing loss as a member of the Cardinal Newman High School football team.
Keefer said Cardinal Newman had won about 30 games in a row when it met arch rival Marin Catholic at Bailey Field, on the Santa Rosa Junior College campus. The game didn’t go well for Cardinal Newman.
“We lost the streak,” Keefer said. “I was beside myself.”
It happened that his folks and Colombini went to his house after the game for cocktails. Arriving home, Keefer spotted Colombini, the former Panther and Don, and his gloom lifted a bit.
“I thought, here’s the one guy who’s going to show a little empathy,” Keefer said.
“I walked up to him and the first thing he said was, ‘What the hell happened tonight? How could you lose to Marin Catholic?’”
“I just walked down to my room and said, ‘Oh, well.’”
Richard Italo Colombini was born in the former Santa Rosa General Hospital on July 25, 1931, to Italian immigrant Egidio “Gene” Colombini and Emma Colombini, of Sonoma County’s deeply rooted Barbieri family.
Gene Colombini started a construction company in Santa Rosa in 1947 and employed son Dick during summer breaks.
The younger Colombini did so well playing football for Santa Rosa High that upon graduation in 1949 he was offered several athletic scholarships — including one at USF.
He and future San Francisco 49er great and Sonoma County resident Bob St. Clair played on the 1949-50 freshman team that finished the season undefeated.
Two years later, both were on the roster of the Dons varsity team that would stand on principle, decline a bowl berth and go down in history. Colombini delighted in recounting the ’51 team’s distinctions.
