Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 23, 1995 TAG: 9511220113
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E16 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Spectators see the finished product in football officials as they walk around the field before a game, talking to coaches, inspecting chains and making sure the ball boys are ready to exchange footballs whenever there is a change of possession.
What they see isn't always what they get.
``I remember one night an official forgot his socks. So we painted his leg with shoe polish, went out on the field and to my knowledge, no one noticed it,'' said veteran referee Fred Reese.
Ernie Bradd, now the commissioner of the Western Virginia Football Officials' Association, told one on himself.
``I remember calling a game at Patrick County one night. Somehow Tom Prato, who lives in Martinsville, and I were dressing side-by-side. I got in his suitcase [accidentally] and put on his pants. He was looking around and said he forgot his pants,'' said Bradd.
``I looked in my suitcase and there were my pair of pants. I hated to tell him I had put on his pants.''
Then there is ex-Narrows' football great Dan Phlegar, a seemingly quiet-spoken person who likes to pull pranks on fellow officials.
``George Saul's been calling games for 40 some years,'' said Phlegar. ``In cold weather, we always have to take a long-sleeve and a short-sleeve shirt. One of the worst things an official can do is leave equipment at home.
``We were at a playoff game and it was 25 degrees. I stuck my short sleeve shirt in his bag, pulled out the long sleeve shirt and put it in my bag. He blamed his wife [for not having a long sleeve shirt], but he wouldn't admit leaving it out himself. We finally gave it back to him. It was funny.''
Jim Barley worked the Salem-Martinsville game last weekend and he did leave some equipment at home. He forgot his gloves on the coldest night of the year. But he figured it would warm up once the game started. Luckily, there was little wind in Salem Stadium and as cold nights go, this one wasn't that bad.
Sometimes officials have a tough time getting to a game. Sometimes there is no game as happened this year when a crew Bradd sent to Dan River arrived to find a dark field that was flooded. After the crew left Roanoke, school officials at the Pittsylvania County school had to postpone the game on the waterlogged field, but there was no way for Bradd to reach Jim Geer and his crew.
At least they got to the right place.
``One time Dan Phlegar, myself and [the late] Bill Massie were supposed to work a game in Tunstall,'' said Ruben Terry.
The three officials were in the reserves at the time at Fort Pickett. So they had to drive from there along with a fourth person, John Favarro, a former coach at Bassett, who tagged along.
``John hated officials, but he said he wanted to go see three pros work. We got away from Fort Pickett an hour late. We usually tried to be at a game an hour prior to kickoff [now it's 90 minutes],'' recalled Terry.
``We were supposed to meet the [head] referee Doug `Catfish' Ratliff and Bill Slover there. When we got away late, we knew we were in trouble. So we took some back roads from Halifax County coming into Chatham and we didn't know where we were.
``We found a deputy sheriff who led us to Tunstall at about 100 miles per hour. We pulled into that school about five minutes before kickoff. I told Phlegar that Catfish would be upset with us, but Phlegar said he wouldn't be because he'd be so glad to see us.
``When we pulled in, there was Catfish with a grin so wide, you could have put a plate in his mouth. Then we had to kick off three times, once because not all the officials were ready. All the way home, Favarro kept telling us how zebras [officials] ruined games.''
Reese says he's gotten a reputation for arriving at wrong fields over one incident. Luckily, veteran coaches also think he's one of the best at calling games, so they'll forgive this idiosyncrasy.
``One night, I was supposed to go to William Byrd, but for some reason, I had on my mind that it was Cave Spring. I showed up at Cave Spring and there was another official sitting there. I said, `What have I done or what have you done?' Then I took off for William Byrd and made it on time,'' said Reese.
Then there was Bradd, who went up with a crew to do a game at Bath County. ``In those days, Bath County didn't want to use our association, but they did for [Pioneer] district games. We went there for a non-district game, got dressed and went to the field. There were five other officials there,'' said Bradd.
Bradd's crew came home because Bath County had neglected to contact Harry Bushkar, the former head of the WVFOA, that it wasn't using his crews for non-district games. Bradd and his crew still got paid.
Sometimes officials just disappear and no one notices.
``We were calling a game and Tank Stephens was umpire,'' said Reese. ``He had to go to the bathroom and just disappeared off the field all of a sudden. I noticed he wasn't there, but we just kept going on with the game [until he returned]. I don't think anyone missed him.''
by CNB