The 1973 San Diego Toreros football team was an American football team that represented the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...

as an independent in the

1973 NCAA Division III football season The 1973 NCAA Division III football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division III level, began in August 1973, and concluded with the NCAA Division III Football ...

. In their second and final season under head coach Andy Vinci, the Toreros compiled a 9–2–1, outscored opponents by a total of 455 to 169, and lost to Wittenberg in the NCAA Division III Semifinals. The 1973 season was San Diego's first in the NCAA, having competed as a club program for the previous four seasons. In its first season of NCAA competition, the Toreros led Division III with averages of 441 yards of total offense, 231.7 passing yards, and 40.2 points per game, and advanced to the four-team Division III playoffs. When Coach Vinci came to San Diego in December 1971, he inherited a club program that had won only five games in the previous two seasons, operated on a $10,000 budget, and played on a field that was described as "little more than a dirt bowl filled with gopher holes and a rut down the middle, no lights, insufficient parking and poor facilities for coaches and players." Vinci raised funds with a combination of loans and donations and rebuilt the program's facilities. Vinci said, "I even learned how to run a bulldozer." During the 1973 season, four San Diego players broke school records on offense: 1) Rich Paulson set school records with 16 rushing touchdowns, 96 points scored, and an average of 6.3 yards per carry; 2) quarterback Bob Dulich led all players in Division III with an average of 231.2 yards of total offense per game, and broke the schools' single-season records with 2,538 passing yards, 2,773 yards of total offense, and 21 touchdown passes and the single-game record with 389 yards against USIU; 3) Ernie Yarbrough broke single-season receiving records with 1,102 receiving yards and 67 receptions; and 4) Doug Rothrock broke a single-season record with 49 successful extra point kicks and eight successful extra point kicks in one game.2008 San Diego Football Media Guide, p. 42.

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