Kappa Alpha Psi’s Burl Toler Was the NFL’s First Black On-Field Official

Did you know that the first African American on-field official in the history of the National Football League was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.? His name was Burl Toler, and he broke barriers on the football field and in the classroom alike.

Burl Toler was born on May 9, 1928, in Memphis, Tennessee. He became a standout linebacker at the University of San Francisco after transferring from City College of San Francisco. As USF Athletics records, he anchored the legendary 1951 Dons, who finished a perfect 9-0 but were shut out of the bowl games because Toler and his teammate Ollie Matson were Black. When the Orange Bowl offered a bid on the condition that the two men be benched, the team refused, earning the enduring name “undefeated, untied, and uninvited.” Toler earned his degree in 1952 and was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, but a knee injury in a college all-star game ended his playing career before it could begin.

Toler was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. According to the African American Registry, he was initiated into the fraternity through its Gamma Alpha chapter on April 17, 1950. Kappa Alpha Psi was founded in 1911 at Indiana University.

Toler found a new way onto the field. In 1965, he became the first African American on-field official in the NFL, working as a head linesman and field judge. He officiated in the league for 25 years and worked some of its most memorable games. In 1980 he became the first African American official to work a Super Bowl when he was assigned to Super Bowl XIV, and he was also on the field for the 1982 AFC Championship Game, remembered as the “Freezer Bowl” because it was played at nine degrees below zero with a wind chill of 59 below. He officiated three Super Bowls in all, according to The HistoryMakers.

His impact reached far beyond the gridiron. Toler spent his career as an educator in San Francisco, becoming the district’s first Black secondary school principal at Benjamin Franklin Middle School. In 2006, that school was renamed in his honor, and in 2017 the University of San Francisco named a residence hall after him.

Burl Toler died on August 16, 2009, in Castro Valley, California. From the University of San Francisco to the highest levels of the NFL, Kappa Alpha Psi’s Burl Toler opened doors in American sports that stayed open for those who followed.

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