The 1950 Football Team

What was unique about the 1950 Aquinas football team? For starters, it was the only truly undefeated and untied Aquinas football team during what has been affectionately called "the glory years." This term was attached to AQ football teams of 1947-51 because Aquinas had made a strategic decision to upgrade its football program to one where they would only play the best high schools and prep schools anywhere in the United States. Aquinas became a national power during this time and the 1950 team was considered to be the best high school team in the country.

To provide a proper venue for this upgrade, Aquinas selected the Red Wing Stadium on Norton street and the crowds came- averaging 16,000 fans per game. The turnstile success at that stadium inspired the building of Aquinas Memorial Stadium on Ridgeway Avenue, which is where the 1950 team made its mark. A sportswriter from the Democrat and Chronicle wrote "in the days when Aquinas Institute was a national high school football power, playing teams from Texas, Nebraska, Michigan and New Jersey...the 1950 team might just have been the best the school fielded."