Joseph Paul "LaLa” Arenivar was born on October, 1, 1933 in Pittsburg, CA, and attended a local high school. His love of baseball began when he was four years old, when his father began teaching him the game. He grew up playing with family and friends in the neighborhood.
He earned a football scholarship to USF and played on the 1951 Dons football team. Under Head Coach Joe Kuharich, the Dons went undefeated at 9-0-0 in the 1951 season. With two African-American players on the team, Toler and Ollie Matson, they were not invited to any post-season bowl games. Apparently, the owner of the Gator Bowl, Sam Wolfson, had made an agreement with the Orange and Sugar Bowls to omit teams with black players. When the Orange Bowl extended an invitation to them, on the condition that the two African-American players be excluded, the team unanimously declined, and from then on, they were called the “undefeated, untied, and uninvited.” “Nobody on that team ever said that they regretted the decision that we had made," Marchetti said to ESPN. "It was 100 percent in favor of not playing, so we didn't go. I went home and went back to work.” Although the Dons had been denied a bowl berth, the entire team was recognized at the 2008 Fiesta Bowl, at long last making an appearance in a bowl game.
Unfortunately, without post-season funding, USF was forced to shut down its football program the following year. Attendance at the Kezar games had declined 80% since the arrival of the 49ers in 1946. The squad featured nine future NFL players, including Pro Football Hall of Fame members Matson, Marchetti, and St. Clair, and five earned Pro Bowl selections at some point in their career. The team’s Sports Information Director, Pete Rozelle, served as NFL Commissioner for 29 years. The experience instilled in Arenivar a lifelong desire to work in support of racial equality, student mental health issues, and students with disabilities.
In addition to football, Arenivar played baseball for the Dons, and played for the United States Army while serving with them for two years. Afterwards in 1954, he signed with the New York Yankees but played in Minor Leagues across the country: the Boise Pilots, Owensboro Oilers, Modesto Reds, Quincy Gems, Amarillo Gold Sox, and the Binghamton Triplets from 1954 to 1960. He played right field and first base, and threw and batted left-handed.
In 1960, he began a 34-year academic career for the Pittsburgh Unified School District as a coach, teacher and administrator. On April 14, 2018, the Pittsburgh High School baseball field was dedicated in his honor. Arenivar never regretted leaving baseball to return to his home town: “I made the right choice…I have a beautiful wife, wonderful children, grandchildren and a great-grandchild, and I live in a great town and have friends that I love (The Press).”
