The Great Trophy Heist
This story has been edited for readability.
It was a beautiful spring day in 1957, my senior year. A classmate and I had been designing and building hydrofoils for a 10-foot boat since the start of our junior year. Commencement was quickly approaching, and we needed to complete the project and the accompanying thesis, to graduate.
We started working right after lunch, took a quick break for dinner, and called it quits at 11:00 p.m. I was dead tired. I returned to the dorm, found my roommate gone, took a quick shower, and was asleep by 11:30 p.m.
Around midnight my roommate shook me awake; he wanted me to get up and try something on. Needless to say, I answered with several very nasty but appropriate suggestions as to what he should do. I quickly gave in, though, when I saw several classmates in my room.
I got out of bed and allowed a couple of guys to put a robe on me. They immediately took it back off as my roommate triumphantly declared: “I told you it would fit him.”
They left my room, telling me to go to sleep. Again, I quickly fell asleep.
“Wake up,” I heard a distant voice say. This was followed by a much closer “wake up,” this one accompanied by strong shaking.
When I woke up, I was told we were going to take a ride, and I could sleep in the back seat. By now I was resigned to doing what they wanted, especially since they just about carried me to a car and put me in the backseat with my roommate. I asked where we were going and they told me I would find out later, now was time for me to sleep.
I tried to sleep but couldn’t, so I insisted on knowing what was going on. Finally, I was told of “The Plan.”
“The Plan” was to go to USF, enter the building where their trophies were kept (national championships and all), and take as many as we could. Once back at SCU, all the trophies were going to be placed on my desk and on my bed with a sign that indicated they were gifts from the student club, “Simba.”
Kezar Pavilion, the home of the USF Dons as of 1957
As the Rally Committee Chairman, I would notify Fr. Raymond Kelly, the Dean of Men—also known as “The Enforcer”—of the gifts Simba had left in my room and ask what to do with them. Now I was awake and excited!
“The Plan” was successful; 12 Broncos and a coed from San Jose State were the heroes.
Simba spies posing as interested individuals visited (cased) the building where the trophies were kept and learned that the windows were easily jimmied without causing any damage. The coed from San Jose State and one of the Simba members served as lookouts, posing as lovers strolling near the USF dorms.
At the other end, a fake priest, deep in prayer with a breviary and rosary beads, patrolled along the Jesuits’ residence.
Alas, I was the phony priest. The cassock was the robe they tried on me and the breviary was just a missal, though the rosary was real.
For 20 minutes, I walked my beat. The only surprise came when the door to the only lit room opened and a worker, or possibly a Jesuit Brother, opened the door and asked:” Father, would you like some coffee?” to which I quickly replied, “Thank you, not now.” He nodded and shut the door.
My prayers were answered!
As for the trophies? Let’s just say that, just as it was planned, so it happened.
“The Plan” was to go to USF, enter the building where their trophies were kept (national championships and all), and take as many as we could.
After breakfast, I walked into Fr. Kelly’s office and he met me with a big grin. I was active in Student Body affairs and had gotten to know Fr. Kelly for the man he really was and not for his “Enforcer” persona. But the grin he gave me was… unusual. He told me to sit down and began to discuss the morning's events with me. He wanted to know where I got the cassock and I quickly told him the truth, that I didn’t know.
He named off each of the guys who participated in the event one by one by one (though he had no idea who the girl from San Jose State was). He was curious to see what trophies we had acquired and told me to tell Simba to bring them to his office.
How did he learn so much of a “secret” plan in just a few hours? Let’s just call it the mystery of the Jesuits!
In later discussions with Simba, we concluded that some elated and loud bragging may have occurred, though this will neither be confirmed nor denied by this author. The Jesuit priest, who was the dorm monitor in Walsh Hall (now McLaughlin-Walsh), had good hearing and was likely more than glad to pass on to the Enforcer what he heard.
Once Fr. Kelly had all the trophies, he contacted his counterpart at USF; two weeks later, the Student Body Presidents of SCU and USF met at a neutral halfway point to exchange trophies. The exact location, and many of the meeting’s details, will not be disclosed.
One thing I’m sure of is that Jerry Kirrene, A.S.U.S.C. president, had a bigger smile during the hand-off than his counterpart.
The USF Trophies
John Figini ’57 is a guest contributor for the Santa Clara University Alumni Association.
Image Credits, Top to Bottom:
Aerial Shot of Santa Clara, courtesy of the SCU Digital Collections Archive (https://content.scu.edu/digital/collection/college/id/18)
USF Kezar Pavilion, courtesy of the Marilyn Blaisdell Collection at OpenSFHistory (https://opensfhistory.org/Display/wnp37.02346.jpg)
USF Trophies, courtesy of John Figini
