Skip To Main Content

University of San Francisco Athletics

Events

Composite Calendar +

Hall of Fame

Baseball 1971

1971 Baseball

  • Class
  • Induction
    1991
  • Sport(s)
    Team Recognition
Baseball was the passion of Coach Dante Benedetti. The New Pisa restaurant in North Beach sponsored eight youth league teams for years, and he often bought equipment out of his own pocket. If he had a ballplayer who couldn’t afford college, he paid for their tuition. He coached baseball at USF for 16 years for $1. per year to save the baseball program from being dropped, and finished with 373 wins. His 1971 team record of 15-6 was second in WCAC, and it was USF’s best baseball performance in 30 years. When he retired in 1980, USF dedicated the baseball diamond to him, and Joe DiMaggio attended. "When I refer to Dante Benedetti,” DiMaggio said, “I refer to him as Mr. Baseball.” The baseball MVP award at USF is named after him.
 
West Coast Athletic Conference
Conference Overall
Team W L GB W L
Santa Clara 18 2 - 43 13
San Francisco 15 6 3.5 32 12

There were several baseball players from 1970-1971 who were named to the Hall of Fame: Michael Buskey played Shortstop, and was signed by the Sarasota White Sox as a free agent for the 1971 season.

Pete Barry played basketball for one year, and baseball for four years at 2nd base, 3rd base, and shortstop. He was selected by the Medford Dodgers in the Northwest League and played from 1970-1971, and recorded .285 at batting, 0 home runs, and 43 RBI in his 199-game career. His first coaching job was at USF and the Dons were 49-13 in his two seasons coaching. He won the WCC Coach of the Year in 1981. A recruiting scandal at USF resulted in staff terminations in 1982 and a suspension of the basketball program for three seasons from 1982 to 1985. Barry taught high school and in 1984, began coaching the NAIA Southern Oregon Raiders. In six years, the team was 100-82, and reached five NAIA District II post-season tournaments. 

Bill Curran was a four-time letter winner on the Dons baseball team, Curran earned All-League Honors in 1970 and 1972 after playing two seasons with no errors.

William Garcia played baseball for the Dons and graduated in 1971.  

Dana Hendershott played relief pitcher at USF, and threw and batted left-handed. He was a USF All-Time leader in wins, ERA, innings pitched, complete games, appearances and strike-outs. As a sophomore at USF in 1969, he posted a single season record of 1.67 ERA in 21 games. He pitched 7.2 innings in a winning game 3-2 against third-ranked Stanford. His junior year, he won 6 out of 24 games, with 99 strike-outs, in 96.1 innings pitched. His senior year, he posted 11 wins with a 1.84 ERA record, earned All-American selection in 1971, First-Team All-Conference, All-District Honors, and the Green and Gold Loyalty Award. In 1971, their highest win tally was 32, the second highest in USF history. He posted the lowest single-season ERA of any pitcher in WCC history in league contests in 1971, recording a 0.60 ERA  and posted a 7-0 league record, allowing just eight runs off 36 hits with 58 strikeouts and 14 walks. His 1969 to 1971 USF career pitching leader in virtually every career statistic despite playing just three years of varsity baseball, including ERA (2.20), innings pitched (332.1), strikeouts (299). He was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 26th Round of the 1971 Draft, and played in the minors for the Medford Dodgers, the El Paso Dodgers, the Daytona Beach Dodgers, the Waterbury Dodgers, and the Bakersfield Dodgers. 
 
Tad Tassone is 8th in USF records for stolen bases (56). He earned All-City in 1969, First Team All-West Coast Athletic Conference in 1971, and 2nd Team WCAC in 1972. While at USF, he played for the Mobridge Lakers Intercollegiate Team in the Basin Minor League in South Dakota and they won the title in 1972. He was one of Dante Benedetti’s Boys and said that Dante “was one of the most generous people I ever met (SF Gate)."  In 1972, he was signed by the Idaho Falls Angels, and later worked as an Assistant Coach for O’Connell Varsity Girls' Softball Team in San Francisco. 
Explore HOF Explore Hall of Fame Members