Rest in peace, my friend

[VALJ]

Our association lost a great man on Sunday.  Harrison had been with the association for 61 years, and was one of the officials in the T.C. Williams game memorialized in the film "Remember the Titans".  He truly had forgotten more about officiating that I'll ever know, and the times I spent on the field with him were some of the best times I've ever had in football.  If you believe in a bigger power, please spare a little prayer for his family, his friends, and his colleagues.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/obituaries/eacho-harrison/article_439374b6-67b2-5f4f-9c8d-d1a4a4dcf1ba.html

EACHO, Harrison Claiborne Jr., at the age of 88, left all who loved him on November 2, 2014. He was born on September 30, 1926, the son of the late Doris Roper Eacho and The Hon. Harrison C. Eacho Sr. Harrison attended Washington and Lee University. One of his happiest times was when he played on the Washington and Lee basketball team. His education was interrupted when he joined the U.S. Navy during World War II. He graduated from the University of Richmond and received his law degree there. He was a member of the McNeal Society and passed the Virginia State Bar on his first try. He loved sports and was good at them all. Harrison, known as "Hank" by many of his football buddies, was an active member of the Central Virginia Football Officials Association for 61 years and wearing his white referee's cap, he officiated his last football game on October 17, 2014. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Avis; and their three children, Harrison "Hank" Eacho III and his wife, Donna, Jill Gilbert and her husband, Mike and Stephen Eacho. He is also survived by his beloved grandsons, Andy and Kevin Gilbert; and his aunts, Janice Dixon (Arthur) and Adrienne Knowles. The funeral service will be held at B.W. White Funeral Home, 20408 King William Rd. (Rt. 30) King William, Va., on Thursday, November 6 at 1 p.m. The family will receive friends on Wednesday, November 5, 6 to 8 p.m. at the funeral home. We love you so, our dear Eacho/Dad/PaPa.

[VALJ]

I'll never forget the first time that I ever worked a game with Hank.  It was a varsity game at one of our out of town schools on a Monday night - we had a hurricane come through the Thursday and Friday before, and the varsity game was moved to Monday due to the weather and field conditions.  About halfway through the second quarter, we had players from opposite teams exchanging pleasantries about the weather, the game, and life in general.  I stepped in between them, using my arms to separate the two of them, when the player from the visiting team pushed me out of the way so he could get one final comment in.  It took me a couple of seconds to realize what had happened, and I flagged it.  Hank came over and asked me what I had.  I told him "dead ball USC on 44 white, with an ejection.  As I was separating the players, he pushed me out of the way."  Hank thought for a second, said OK, and signaled the penalty and the DQ.  We went over to the visiting team's coach to explain why his player was DQ'd.  Just before he blew the RFP, he yelled over to me "you have to call {the commissioner} to report the ejection."

I'd been umpiring little league baseball and softball for 16 years at that point, and had never ejected a kid.  I spent the entire drive home worried sick about it, and if I was too hasty.  As it happens, our weekly meeting was the next day.  I sat down right next to him and said, "Harrison, I need you to tell me the truth - was that a good ejection?"  He thought for a second and answered, "well, I was going to tell you to keep the kid in the game", and my heart sunk.  Then he continued "until you told me he pushed you.  When you said that, I knew you had it right."

The funny part is when I called the commissioner the following morning to report the EJ.  I had to leave a message with his wife, and got a call back from him about an hour later.  He was a bit irritated, with his voice rising with every word he said:  "I was wondering if you can tell me why Chris {last name}, a line judge, is calling me to report an ejection.  It's supposed to be the referee that calls those in, and here I have a LINE JUDGE calling me." 

"[Commissioner's name], that's what I thought too, but my referee last night told me that I had to call it in, because he wasn't going to do it!"

"You worked with Mr. Eacho last night?  Well, he's got some different rules.  It's OK - tell me what happened."

[NorCalMike]

Sounds like a great loss to your group. It is incredible the he officiated a game two weeks ago. 61 years of officiating is incredible and got to be some kind of record. I wonder how to check that out.

Also a great story about working with him.

[Ralph Damren]

Thank you, VALJ, for sharing the touching story of Hank with us. Your chapter may wish to consider black arm bands worn by the officials next season with Hank's initials. He has the best seat in the house (Heaven) now to keep an eye on your field antics and, I bet, will have a full report for you once you join him some day. May God Bless him and his family. - Ralph

[HLinNC]

We have lost four active or former officials over the past two years.  We had black down indicators embroidered with their initials, two each season.  The association paid for them and distributed to the members in a pre-season meeting.

The cost was nominal.

[VALJ]

Just to follow up, our association - in what I think was a first for us - asked for a moment of silence Friday night in Hank's memory, and sent out a little bit of verbiage about his years of service to football (high school and youth) to read.  I can't speak for the rest of our association, but it meant a lot to me personally.

I also found out that the last game he worked was a varsity game on Friday night three weeks ago, and he got knocked over during the game.  Hank worked the clock for 6 little league games the next day before he finally decided he didn't feel right.  He went to the ER and found that he had cracked three ribs, and had a punctured lung from the collision.  Tough old son of a gun, and the whole region is worse off for his loss.

[TXMike]

Great move on the association's part. Much as we want to remain anonymous, some of really contributed and they deserve to be recognized.

[VALJ]

Just to "close the story" = our association is wearing black sweatbands on our wrist all season to honor Hank.  VHSL has the shirts with the logo sublimated into the shirt, so we can't get a black piece of tape over the patch as we used to.