My umpire is retiring
 

My umpire is retiring after 35+ years of service to our association. His last regular season game is Nov. 7th... and I always thought he’d be 6 feet under before he stopped calling football. Any ideas on what the crew can do for him on that last game? I’m all for fun ideas, as well as sentimental. I’ve invited his son to the game, whom used to be the BJ on our crew until he moved out of state.

I’ve been a white hat for 8 years or so, all of them with him as my umpire. It’ll be weird not having him in the middle next season… but I can worry about that later.

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

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.

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

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)?

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.

When my dad retired from 40 years of officiating high school football, we got a game shirt of his and had it put into a frame. We had a plate engraved and mounted on the outside of the frame. It is hanging in his downstairs and is a great reminder to him and us each time we see it of all the dedication he put into this craft.

We also had the crew and players from the game sign the game ball. It was a rival game, which made it even more special.

Tell your wings not to signal on goal line plays and let him have all the glory that he's been wanting this whole time?

When Gerry Austin, NFL referee, retired, at the 2-minute warning in his last game, his crew all sounded their whistles at the same time, and all came running to a spot near him.

He recounts this and said that he thought a fight was breaking out - an official's nightmare. He went up to meet his crew and they said "2-minute warning, Gerry".

Pretty cool, if you ask me.

Take the game ball and give it to him. most of the schools have no clue. Sign it and give it to the guy as he has earned it!:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::m ad: