Cal Football: A Father Figure No Question, But Pappy Waldorf Could Coach

Former Bears coach led program to three straight Rose Bowls through 1950
Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

On this Father’s Day, Pappy’s Boys remember their old Cal coach for the mentoring he provided them as young men.

But it’s not lost on any of them that Pappy Waldorf was one hell of a football coach.

“We had a bunch of great players all together under his tutelage and won a lot of games. That seemed to be a pretty good formula,” said Pete Schabarum, 91, an all-conference halfback who went on to play for the 49ers and eventually served as a California state assemblyman.

“After a while, we were winning all the time. He was a good one. We seemed to get up for every Saturday. He was a gentle man. And he was a very good coach.”

Schabarum’s view is informed by a stunning record: The Bears of 1948, ’49 and ’50 — his three varsity seasons — were 29-0-1 in the regular season. “We lost no games other than the three Rose Bowls.”

In 70 years since then, Cal hasn’t come close to matching that three-year run. By the time Waldorf retired after his 10th season in 1956, he had piled up 67 victories, a school record that endured for 54 years until Jeff Tedford broke it.

His players from that decade have gathered together annually for the past 33 years to honor Waldorf. But with age catching up to them, Pappy’s Boys will disband after one final banquet, scheduled for Sept. 4.

Portrait of Cal coach Pappy Waldorf
Pappy Waldorf / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

The son of a Methodist minister, Waldorf was born in 1902 in Clifton Springs, New York, a hamlet about a half-hour southeast of Rochester. He attended Syracuse, where he was an All-America tackle on the football team. A year after graduating, he was named head football coach at Oklahoma City University, benefiting from the school’s Methodist affiliation.

He spent a season as line coach at Kansas, then was head coach at Oklahoma A&M and Kansas State. Over 12 seasons as head coach at Northwestern, through 1946, Waldorf won 49 games, which remained the most by any Wildcats coach until Pat Fitzgerald eclipsed that total 66 seasons later.

When Waldorf arrived in Berkeley for the 1947 season, Cal hadn’t enjoyed a winning record in nine years. But on the first day of tryouts that year more than 200 would-be players showed up.

“One-hundred and ninety of them were GIs,” recalled Doug Duncan, 94, who grew up in Berkeley and was returning from a Navy stint in the South Pacific during World War II.

Quarterback Jim Marinos was fresh out of high school in San Diego when he arrived that year.

“These guys were grizzled, tough ex-Marines. Soldiers that had fought both in the Pacific and in the European theater — that was half of our team,” Marinos said. “The rest of our team was a bunch of young punks like me.”

Waldorf and his assistants knew how to build a team. The Bears went 9-1 that first season, then put together their three straight Rose Bowl appearances.

“We were so lucky as freshmen to be there the same year Pappy showed up from Northwestern with a new vigorous, charismatic approach, one of obvious talent and knowledge,” said Marinos, who climbed from 10th-string quarterback to starter early in his senior season of 1950. “Everything he possessed radiated down to the players.”

Four of Pappy's Boys from 1950: Jim Marinos, Pete Schabarum, Johnny Olszewski, Jim Monachino / Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

Cal won with a stout defense and a running attack that averaged 270 rushing yards over Waldorf’s first six seasons after the Bears managed just 101 yards per game the year before he arrived.

Duncan, who played center for the Bears, recalls being struck by Waldorf’s organizational skills.

“Pappy was sort of a CEO. He did the planning and the strategy,” Duncan explained. “He didn’t do the actual coaching as much as the assistants. He didn’t get down there and grunt with you.”

Mike White enrolled at Cal a few years later and saw the same thing. A 13th-string end when he started, White worked himself into a captain’s role and later spent six seasons as the Bears’ head coach, winning a Pac-8 co-title in 1975.

“So much of how I tried to do things was patterned after Pappy,” White said. “He was definitely the boss but he just made you feel comfortable. There's no holes in how he did things. The players felt respected and he earned their trust.”

Because of that relationship, Duncan said, players needed no extra motivation on Saturday afternoons.

“They wanted to play for Pappy because he was such a great guy,” Duncan said. “You knew he had your back. He’d support you anywhere.”

That included Waldorf attending Duncan’s wedding in 1949. Doug and wife Mary have been married 71 years. “We still eat out of a pot he gave us.”

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*** Why Pappy's Boys have decided the time is right to disband after 33 years.

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Jeff Faraudo
JEFF FARAUDO

Jeff Faraudo was a sports writer for Bay Area daily newspapers since he was 17 years old, and was the Oakland Tribune's Cal beat writer for 24 years. He covered eight Final Fours, four NBA Finals and four Summer Olympics.