This story is compliments of Rick Lowe (Sun Belt). There may be no better family (fraternity) in the land. DL
Showing Their Stripes
> Former NFL referees make a whistle-stop trip to
> courageous colleague
> J.A. Adande
>
>
> The day before had been one of the good ones, when he felt well enough to
> take a long walk. Now his pancreatic cancer was taking the upper hand
again,
> forcing him to stop on his way in to Lincoln High and throw up.
> He kept going, because he was about to do what he always did: referee a
> football game. This was his work for almost 50 years, including 13 years
in
> the NFL.
> "It's the only thing I ever did,"
> lifelong deal for me."
> The vomiting had been going on for more than a month. At first he thought
he
> was simply sick. So did the doctors. But the vomiting didn't stop. The
> doctors did exploratory surgery and made a devastating discovery:
> had a baseball-sized tumor in his stomach, and his life expectancy was one
> to 12 months.
> Since then, so many things have been going wrong with his body that he
> probably thought he was hallucinating when he saw a familiar face walk
into
> the officials' dressing room Friday afternoon as he prepared for the start
> of the Roosevelt-Madison game.
> That looked like Red Cashion, his former crew chief in the NFL. And that
guy
> behind him looked like Terry Gierke, another
former NFL crewmate. And
wasn't
> that Jack Barger, the man who spent 25 years as a Pacific 10 Conference
> official, the person who taught
> Then Cashion assured him it was reality, with that unmistakable
twang:
> "We thought you could use a little help."
> Two more former NFL buddies, John Alderton and Nate Jones, came through
the
> door and suddenly there was 96 years of NFL officiating experience in the
> room, preparing to work a game between two high school teams with one
> victory between them.
> "I was really shocked,"
expect
> anything like this.
> "Just goes to show you how close the group is.
There's nothing closer than
> an officiating crew."
> *
> You probably don't pay much attention to football officials. If you do,
it's
> to boo them, yell at them, maybe even throw things at them.
> You don't think of them as people who get together and tell stories, just
> like the rest of us. You never realize their ranks include the likes of
Vern
>
on
> a football field.
> You can't count the number of kids he has helped as a high school
counselor
> and physical education coach, and it's just as hard to put a figure on the
> number of young officials he has tutored.
> "He's an inspiration," said Tom Rinella,
who officiates
school
> games.
> "I've known him for 30 years," said Bob Wellnitz,
the commissioner of the
> Portland Officials' Assn. "I've never heard him say anything negative
about
> anybody."
> Perhaps that trait wasn't the most helpful to Wellnitz
when he tried to
> evaluate officials. As he said, if
> probably say she had good bulletin boards.
> But there's no one Wellnitz would rather have
working for him.
> "How many guys do you know that would work for the NFL and come back
to
high
> school for an $1,100-a-game pay cut?" Wellnitz said.
>
>
> stay involved in sports after his athletic ability had taken him to its
last
> stop.
> "He loves kids," said his wife, Tina Henderson. "He never
really wanted to
> coach, he wanted to officiate. That's always been his passion, to give
back
> to the community. He loves to start new guys out and work with them. Just
> giving them the information that he knows, that he can share."
> His No. 1 pupil has been his son, Vern Jr., 45.
> "Every time I worked with him, I learned something new," Vern
Jr. said.
> Although Vern Sr. has worked a Super Bowl, his officiating dream is to
work
> a high school playoff game with his son.
> Friday, he got to work with a crew that included four retired NFL
referees.
> Cashion flew in from
> native, came up from his home in
> It was a surprise for
> fake crew for the game, with members calling to check with Marshall in the
> preceding days and sitting in the locker room up to the minute the
> old-timers -- all retired, and ranging in age from the 50s to the 70s --
> walked in.
> Gierke and Alderton
came up with the idea soon after they learned of
> Marshall's condition.
> "I tried to think of some way we could show him how we felt about
him,"
> Gierke said.
> They called Cashion, whose distinctive call of "First dowwwwn!" made him
one
> of the most recognizable referees, because they thought it would be nice
to
> have someone of his stature. When Alderton asked
him to be a part of it,
> Cashion responded with three words: "Count me in."
> "All of us wanted to say, 'Vern, you're special,' "
Cashion said. "Any of
> the NFL officials would have said the same thing."
> Before the game they met up at Nick's Famous Coney Island, where the walls
> are covered with sports pictures (heavy on the New York Yankees) and the
hot
> dogs are covered with chili (heavy on the onions). It seemed as if
everyone
> who entered or left the restaurant stopped by to say hello to the guys.
> The refs called each other by colorful names, most unfit to print.
> They know they get calls wrong sometimes. (As Cashion said, "If
you're
> talking about an 'Oh, ... !' call, I've got a
bunch of those.") Jones
> thought Barger blew it when Barger officiated a game in which Jones was a
> field-goal kicker and Barger called an attempt no good.
> "I still think you might have missed that," Jones said.
> They can joke about it now, but they take their duties very seriously.
> "You're out there as a crew," Barger said. "The last thing
anybody wants
to
> do is make an error. You form a bond within that group, because it's like
> you're going to war, so to speak. It's you, in a way, against the
teams."
> "The third team," Cashion interjected.
> "We're a team unto ourselves," Gierke
said. "That's where the bond comes
> from."
> There's an extra touch of pride among the Portland-area officials. A city
> with no NFL team somehow managed to put four officials into the league.
>
> "He carried the torch," Alderton said.
> They were willing to do anything to honor him, even if it meant taking a
> test. They had to be certified to work the game, and that meant passing
the
> 100-question quiz on high school rules.
> So they went into the closets and pulled out the old stripes. They still
> fit. And they brought out
as
> well.
> On the way out to the field, another surprise awaited
> local officials, all wearing their black-and-white stripes, lined the
> entrance to the field and applauded him every step of the way.
> "I think he was very surprised," said Vern Jr., who worked the
game with
his
> dad. "And I think he appreciated every moment of it. The tears really
welled
> up in his eyes."
> There were only 30 people in the stands, meaning this might have been the
> first sporting event in which more people were on hand to see the
officials
> than the players.
> And it would be hard to call any of the players' performances more
> impressive than
> tube sticking out of his body and a pouch tucked under his clothes to
> collect fluids from surgery the week before.
>
> raise his arms above his head to signal a touchdown. He came to the
> sideline, where his son Joe wrapped a blanket around him, then left the
> stadium after the first quarter when the chilly November air became too
much
> for him.
> He turned and waved his cap one last time.
> The rest of his buddies stuck around in the cold and finished the game.
>
> That would have been the story on any other day. But this day was about
the
> officials.
> So how was it for the "star" referee to work his first high
school game
> since 1971?
> "It was kinda like two Super Bowls rolled
into one," Cashion said. "It was
> an awesome experience.
> "But I still think walking onto the field and seeing all of [
> fellow officials pay that tribute to him and clapping and patting him on
the
> back was just a very, very special thing. And that means the people that
> have worked with him and know him locally and all of the things that he's
> done really appreciate the things he's done. That's what football
> officiating is all about."