My umpire is retiring

[Welpe]

A signed ball by the crew with the date of his last game on it might be a nice gesture.

[IAUMP]

You might want to get a copy of the program for that night from the school. Also, I like the idea of the signed football, but you might open it to anybody in your association that wants to sign it. Plus plenty of crew pictures. Also might want to get him a case of snickers bars. He is an Umpire after all.

[HLin NC]

Arrange for a photographer to be there to get some photos of the event.
One of the craft shops like Michael's can take some of them and arrange into a very nice frame and matting

[jTheUmp]

You might also mention it to the host school's AD and/or site manager... maybe the can make an announcement over the PA during the pregame.

Definitely make sure you get a crew photo at some point also... Since he's the umpire, he'll be in a lot of photos that the sideline folks take during the game; see if you can get a hold of a few of those, frame up the best one(s) and give them to him at his retirement party (there's going to be a retirement party, right)?

[Sturno]

Originally Posted by HLin NC

Arrange for a photographer to be there to get some photos of the event.
One of the craft shops like Michael's can take some of them and arrange into a very nice frame and matting

We did that when our white hat stepped away a few years back. I also found a bronze whistle we had personalized from somewhere. We had the years start-finish engraved on it. He was a tough SOB who served in Vietnam and a close-to-retired police chief when he stepped away from the stripes, and he had a tough time keeping it together at the end when the last whistle went.

I made a joke that instead of getting his knee replaced, he should've got his eyes fixed. Kind of lightened the mood up a bit.

That was almost 8 years ago already. Man, does the time fly.