On a sun-soaked 75-degree afternoon, Joe McNamara sat in the Torero Stadium stands, taking in USD’s Sept. 1 football opener against Western New Mexico. He paid particular attention to quarterback Anthony Lawrence.

Watching Lawrence arch spiral after spiral, McNamara said, “He’s an amazing, good-looking kid. The kid has got it all.”

There’s a link between Lawrence and McNamara. A senior out of Grossmont High, Lawrence, 22, barring injury, will set the school’s all-time passing yardage record this season. McNamara, who turns 85 Saturday and played at Kearny High, quarterbacked USD’s first team back in 1956.

Recalled Mike Miller, a teammate of McNamara’s on that ’56 squad, “Basically, Joe was pretty much our whole offense. He could run. He could throw. The ball was in his hands 95 percent of the time.”


USD will celebrate homecoming Saturday afternoon against Dayton. Football alums will hoist beers tailgating at Fowler Park, no doubt exaggerating truth, reliving athletic nostalgia. When they do, they should pause for a moment and say a thank you to McNamara.

McNamara not only quarterbacked that ’56 team, but along with teammate Tom Kelly, recruited the players.

Back in ’56, the biggest football game in town was San Diego High vs. Hoover. Chula Vista-Sweetwater drew packed houses. So did Oceanside-Escondido. Barron Hilton didn’t move the Chargers from Los Angeles until 1961.

Military football was popular, too.


“Service football at that time was very large,” said Rick Smith, former San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Rams publicist and a local sports historian.

McNamara, who lives in La Mesa, played football at San Diego Junior College (now San Diego City), then one season at MCRD and another for a Marine team in Hawaii.

At the same time, a small Roman Catholic university on Linda Vista Road was in its infancy. Bishop Charles F. Buddy envisioned USD as the Notre Dame of the West and former USC All-American Gil Kuhn was hired as head coach for the new football team.

Through Jean “Cheesy” Neil, the former MCRD athletic director, McNamara learned that USD was starting a football program.


McNamara and Kelly, both running backs in high school, had played football together in the Marines and began rounding up players they knew from high school and the military to fill out USD’s roster.

“Kelly and I were backs,” said McNamara. “We had to find some linemen.”

Said Kelly, 83, who lives in Tucson, “We put the whole football team together.”

The men have been friends for more than 50 years. Kelly was the best man at Joe and Patsy McNamara’s wedding on Nov. 14, 1958. But their initial meeting was not cordial.


In the 1950s, high school football teams staged a preseason carnival at Balboa Stadium, playing against each other for one quarter. Kearny and Helix squared off one year and Kelly remembers tackling McNamara, driving him hard to the ground.

“Joe got up and kicked me,” said Kelly. “He was (ticked) off.”

USD is a non-scholarship football program now, but in ’56 the university paid for the football players’ books and tuition, plus, by McNamara’s memory, $80 a month. The school also arranged part-time jobs.

“They took care of us,” said McNamara.


The team practiced at MCRD. McNamara remembers players piling into cars for the drive to practice. Home games were at the epicenter of San Diego sports at the time, Balboa Stadium.

USD’s first football game was against the Air Force Academy, which was also playing its first college football game. The Falcons administered a 46-0 rout.

“They kicked the (heck) out of us,” said Kelly. “We knew it was a track meet for those guys. We wouldn’t ever be up to their standards.”

McNamara began the season as a running back in USD’s ground oriented single-wing and T-formation offense. He did not play in USD’s second game because of an injury, a 30-0 whipping administered by the Naval Air Station.


Sitting in his La Mesa living room, having brought out press clippings and pictures from his USD days, McNamara said, “I would have killed those guys.”

Before the third game, Kuhn made a quarterback change, inserting McNamara.

“McNamara will add the necessary experience in the backfield,” Kuhn said in The San Diego Union. “And I think he can get the club moving.”

After USD had been blanked its first two games, McNamara led the team to a 47-0 victory over Edwards Air Force Base. Then came a 14-12 win over New Mexico Military Institute.


The San Diego Union’s account of the 14-12 win opened as follows: “Joe McNamara fought off three tacklers and struggled 16 yards for a touchdown last night with 2:08 left to give the University of San Diego a 14-12 upset victory over New Mexico Military Institute at Balboa Stadium.”

The article described McNamara as a “gambling quarterback all the way,” citing his two first-down runs while lined up at punter.

Because he could skid about, cut and dart, McNamara’s nickname was “Skidley.”

“I could make guys miss,” said McNamara. “I always had a double fake.”


During a 90-minute interview at his home, at one point McNamara stood and deftly illustrated the ball-handling he displayed in USD’s offense, feigning holding a football on his hip to deke defenders.

“Joe was a good little quarterback, for sure,” said Kelly.

“He was a leader,” said Miller, who lives in Redondo Beach. “He commanded the huddle.”

The Toreros finished the 1956 season 2-3. The next year, under new head coach Bob McCutcheon, McNamara was shifted to running back.


Professionally, McNamara worked in the restaurant and car sales businesses. He will not be at Saturday’s homecoming because a former Kearny teammate recently died and he will attend the funeral.

McNamara is facing his own health issues. In May 2017, he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. Rather than chemotherapy or radiation, he has been undergoing immunotherapy treatment. While he has lost 20 pounds, he still tries to play golf once a week at Mission Trails.

At USD’s Sept. 1 season opener, McNamara was easy to spot. He was dressed in neatly pressed jeans, a blue Hawaiian shirt and an old, baby-blue baseball cap commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1956 team.

In a coincidence, the Toreros today play in the Pioneer Football League. The team’s original nickname was the Pioneers but it didn’t stick and the school twitched to Toreros in the early 1960s.


McNamara knows USD dominates the PFL, winning or sharing the title nine of the last 13 seasons. Thinking of his role in starting the program, McNamara said, “If Kelly and I hadn’t brought in some players (the program) wouldn’t even have got off the bus.”

DAYTON at USD

Saturday: 2 p.m. at Torero Stadium

On the air: 1090-AM; streaming at theW.tv


Records: Dayton (3-3, 2-1); USD (3-2, 2-0)

Notable: Saturday is homecoming for the Toreros and a showdown with their Pioneer Football League rival. Dayton has won 12 PFL titles. USD is second with nine. In a coaches’ poll, USD was picked to win the league this year with Dayton tabbed for second.

Norcross is a freelance writer.

USD is a non-scholarship football program now, but in ’56 the university paid for the football players’ books and tuition, plus, by Joe McNamara’s memory, $80 a month. The school also arranged part-time jobs. (Courtesy photo)


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