Author Topic: Worst places you've officiated at?  (Read 16416 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Teevee

  • Guest
Worst places you've officiated at?
« on: March 03, 2010, 10:47:05 AM »
Only once did I work in this place and I don't care how much they've improved it I'd never go back. It was at a sports centre almost in the shadow of Old Trafford, the Manchester United soccer ground. When we arrived we were told to park the car as close to the main building as possible. When we asked why we were told the local youth frequently paid the car park a visit looking for cars to break into. We asked why they didn't have a security guard, they said they'd had one until the previous Wednesday when one of said youth had pulled a gun on him when he went to talk to them. So he'd left. As we left to go to the (astroturf) field we saw a line of home players slowly making their way up the field, - told they were doing a syringe search just in case the local addicts had left a needle or two on the playing surface the night before. As we did our field inspection we found a semi circle of turf missing just off one corner of the playing area. the home team guy said it was probably in somebody's front room by now ... if we looked carefully we'd see how it had been cut to neatly slot around somebody's fireplace. Oh and could we please, at least once every series have a quick glance round at the car park just to make sure there were none of the locals 'scouting' it. We did. There was once, but fortunately the sight of sixty plus guys heading towards them made even them think twice and move off. But the cry of (e.g.) "3rd down, on the 20 going out .... car park clear!" was a frequent occurence. As we moved into the 4th quarter they were seen on the roof of what looked like a local church, busily rearranging the roof tiles - or removing some lead - about a quarter of a mile away.We didn't bother getting changed at the end of the game... got paid quickly (they understood perfectly) and got out even quicker ... while the car still had wheels on it  :(

FredFan7

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2010, 04:01:26 PM »
Wow.  I was going to post about a school where there was ice cold water coming out of the shower and a suspicious brownish green substance on the floor, but that doesn't touch your story! :bOW

Offline RMR

  • *
  • Posts: 512
  • FAN REACTION: +10/-6
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2010, 08:05:23 PM »
We had a playoff game out of town a couple of years ago and it was interesting to say the least.

The stadium was in a park.

When we got there we were told to park in the spot closest to the gate.   We had a police escort for the approximately 20 feet from the car to our lockerroom.

As we were walking into the stadium a couple of cops were dragging some guy out of the stadium who had allegedly been slinging rock.

Once we were dressed, we were told not to leave our gear in the lockerroom, we had another police escort to put it back in the car and then back into the stadium.  After the game, same thing so we could change.

In the park, there was a road that ringed the stadium - for the duration of the game there were two police cars that circled the stadium (lights on) the entire time the game was going on.

Weird situation, but we had no incidents.
"Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean it's wrong."

Offline BIG UMP

  • *
  • Posts: 236
  • FAN REACTION: +9/-1
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2010, 11:16:01 AM »
My first game, I was on the clock.  As we went into the stadium to meet witht he game administrator he informed us that if we heard gun fire to drop to the ground and someone would come get us. 
Big Ump


"EVERY JOB IS A SELF-PORTRAIT OF THE PERSON WHO DID IT.  AUTOGRAPH YOUR WORK WITH EXCELLENCE."~unknown

fbrefga

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2010, 10:15:46 PM »
In 2002, had a varsity game where the visiting school had experienced a bomb threat that day.  However, word got around that "something will happen" at the game that night.  There was not only the normal security presence, but numerous deputies and SWAT personnel with full body armor and some rather intimidating firearms.  Nothing happened during the game, but it was a challenge to maintain complete focus during the game.

Offline bmtjim

  • *
  • Posts: 92
  • FAN REACTION: +5/-4
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #5 on: March 05, 2010, 05:59:02 AM »
And I thought I had it bad when I had to dress in the Ag barn on the hay!!!  :-\

Offline southarkumpire

  • *
  • Posts: 69
  • FAN REACTION: +5/-0
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2010, 11:43:16 PM »
My first game, I was on the clock.  As we went into the stadium to meet witht he game administrator he informed us that if we heard gun fire to drop to the ground and someone would come get us. 

So...you have worked at Little Rock Central I see....LOL

Grant - AR

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2010, 08:52:20 AM »
So...you have worked at Little Rock Central I see....LOL

 LOL  That was my first thought too.  :thumbup

Offline Rulesman

  • Past Keeper of the Keys
  • Refstripes Hero
  • *****
  • Posts: 3839
  • FAN REACTION: +65535/-2
  • Live like tomorrow never comes.
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2010, 12:59:26 PM »
LOL  That was my first thought too.  :thumbup
For those who have never been to Quigley, you just can't appreciate how true that statement is.  yEs:

A close second to the "worst" places I've ever been are UAPB in good old Crime Bluff, AR and MVSU in Itty Beany, MS.
"Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good."
- Vince Lombardi

Big-Tee

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #9 on: March 15, 2010, 01:51:15 PM »
I've worked in places where the dressing area for the officials was a sleazy motel. where you had to walk past all the crackheads, johns and prostitutes that rented the rooms by the hour

Offline Rulesman

  • Past Keeper of the Keys
  • Refstripes Hero
  • *****
  • Posts: 3839
  • FAN REACTION: +65535/-2
  • Live like tomorrow never comes.
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #10 on: March 15, 2010, 06:22:04 PM »
I've worked in places where the dressing area for the officials was a sleazy motel. where you had to walk past all the crackheads, johns and prostitutes that rented the rooms by the hour
I don't know about the crackheads, johns and prostitutes, but there is one of those by-the-hour joints in Livingston, Alabama, too. We used to call it the Roach Coach Inn. Biggest damned roaches I've ever seen!
"Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good."
- Vince Lombardi

Big-Tee

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2010, 01:48:34 PM »
I don't know about the crackheads, johns and prostitutes, but there is one of those by-the-hour joints in Livingston, Alabama, too. We used to call it the Roach Coach Inn. Biggest damned roaches I've ever seen!

The roaches were our escorts !!! LOL LOL LOL LOL

younggun

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #12 on: March 19, 2010, 04:17:05 PM »
I have yet to call a game up there but in Barrow, AK they have there field made of blue turf about 75 yards away from the Arctic Ocean. The locker rooms are school buses and the stands are school buses. They have to have guys standing on top of the buses with guns to make sure no polar bears come to disturb the game.

Offline Rulesman

  • Past Keeper of the Keys
  • Refstripes Hero
  • *****
  • Posts: 3839
  • FAN REACTION: +65535/-2
  • Live like tomorrow never comes.
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2010, 10:35:08 PM »
I have yet to call a game up there but in Barrow, AK they have there field made of blue turf about 75 yards away from the Arctic Ocean. The locker rooms are school buses and the stands are school buses. They have to have guys standing on top of the buses with guns to make sure no polar bears come to disturb the game.
I hope they play in July and August! Football in Barrow in November or December would not be somewhere I'd like to work.  :!#
"Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good."
- Vince Lombardi

Offline bmtjim

  • *
  • Posts: 92
  • FAN REACTION: +5/-4
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #14 on: March 24, 2010, 07:43:44 AM »
Just found out that the coach in Barrow has applied for a job here in Southeast Texas on the Gulf Coast. Quite a change, since he can just remove the minus sign from the temperature and be close to right for here.

Offline Rulesman

  • Past Keeper of the Keys
  • Refstripes Hero
  • *****
  • Posts: 3839
  • FAN REACTION: +65535/-2
  • Live like tomorrow never comes.
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #15 on: March 24, 2010, 10:08:22 PM »
Just found out that the coach in Barrow has applied for a job here in Southeast Texas on the Gulf Coast. Quite a change...
More like culture shock.
"Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good."
- Vince Lombardi

LarryW60

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #16 on: April 27, 2010, 02:48:10 PM »
Worked a high school where the official's dressing room was completely around the far side of the school from the football field.  School administration made officials walk outside the school building to get to the field and back.  I guess the students were conducting top secret research in the school and we didn't have the proper clearance to walk in the halls.  During the game a call went against the home team and the crowd thought we'd cost them a turnover for a TD. (We hadn't, they were just thinking Sunday rules).  After the game (while walking all the way back around the school again) some adult was walking beside us shouting all sorts of threats at us.  The "security escort" had a radio, but never used it during the entire walk.  After we had changed and left the dressing room, some youths were standing in the parking lot and threatened to "get" our white hat after they recognized him.

The school's (in)actions were reported to the state and the members of our crew have scratched that school - permanently.

Offline BIG UMP

  • *
  • Posts: 236
  • FAN REACTION: +9/-1
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #17 on: April 27, 2010, 06:41:29 PM »
Hope the state took some kind of action.

It was not in Little Rock but close, Memphis's Crump Stadium.
Big Ump


"EVERY JOB IS A SELF-PORTRAIT OF THE PERSON WHO DID IT.  AUTOGRAPH YOUR WORK WITH EXCELLENCE."~unknown

Big-Tee

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #18 on: April 28, 2010, 10:08:26 AM »
Worked a high school where the official's dressing room was completely around the far side of the school from the football field.  School administration made officials walk outside the school building to get to the field and back.  I guess the students were conducting top secret research in the school and we didn't have the proper clearance to walk in the halls.  During the game a call went against the home team and the crowd thought we'd cost them a turnover for a TD. (We hadn't, they were just thinking Sunday rules).  After the game (while walking all the way back around the school again) some adult was walking beside us shouting all sorts of threats at us.  The "security escort" had a radio, but never used it during the entire walk.  After we had changed and left the dressing room, some youths were standing in the parking lot and threatened to "get" our white hat after they recognized him.

The school's (in)actions were reported to the state and the members of our crew have scratched that school - permanently.

That wouldnt happen to be in Norfolk ?

LarryW60

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #19 on: May 01, 2010, 10:48:31 PM »
It was not in Norfolk.

Offline blindref757

  • *
  • Posts: 561
  • FAN REACTION: +30/-17
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #20 on: August 28, 2010, 11:24:37 PM »
I've dressed in a grain silo before!  Yes...it was in Texas.  No...it wasn't air conditioned!

secondeagle

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #21 on: August 29, 2010, 11:38:31 AM »
Oakwood, America

timsaref38

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #22 on: August 31, 2010, 09:36:39 PM »
i once worked a game in maine at the cumberland county fairgrounds.  as i drove up to the security gatehouse, i noticed that there were several horses and cows grazing on the field we were to have our game on.  "no problem", i was assured by one of the "groundskeepers", who , with a large grain shovel in hand, went out to do his pre-game duties.  thank god it was overcast and about 60 degrees. 

LarryW60

  • Guest
Re: Worst places you've officiated at?
« Reply #23 on: September 04, 2010, 05:59:42 PM »
Worked a high school where the official's dressing room was completely around the far side of the school from the football field.  School administration made officials walk outside the school building to get to the field and back.  I guess the students were conducting top secret research in the school and we didn't have the proper clearance to walk in the halls.  During the game a call went against the home team and the crowd thought we'd cost them a turnover for a TD. (We hadn't, they were just thinking Sunday rules).  After the game (while walking all the way back around the school again) some adult was walking beside us shouting all sorts of threats at us.  The "security escort" had a radio, but never used it during the entire walk.  After we had changed and left the dressing room, some youths were standing in the parking lot and threatened to "get" our white hat after they recognized him.

The school's (in)actions were reported to the state and the members of our crew have scratched that school - permanently.

I'm not with that crew this year, so guess which school I'm at in a few weeks? :!#