Football Officiating > War Stories

The whistle to beat all inadvertent whistles......

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Bubba Ump:
we were meeting the whitehat for an afternoon game out in the sticks.  I drove four of the 5 man crew.  One hour from the park and ride where we met up.  The sandle wearing backjudge on arrival says we have to go back because he left his cleats in his car.  I asked him in front of the whitehat what size shoes he wears and he says 10.  I wear ten and had white tennis shoes on.  I let him wear my cleats and later that night I read my evaluation from the whitehat.  He gave me a 1 out of 5 for appearance for being out of uniform.  The backjudge got 5 out of 5.  You can tell I've gotten over it.... 

AlUpstateNY:

--- Quote from: Bubba Ump on January 25, 2022, 10:35:38 AM ---we were meeting the whitehat for an afternoon game out in the sticks.  I drove four of the 5 man crew.  One hour from the park and ride where we met up.  The sandle wearing backjudge on arrival says we have to go back because he left his cleats in his car.  I asked him in front of the whitehat what size shoes he wears and he says 10.  I wear ten and had white tennis shoes on.  I let him wear my cleats and later that night I read my evaluation from the whitehat.  He gave me a 1 out of 5 for appearance for being out of uniform.  The backjudge got 5 out of 5.  You can tell I've gotten over it....

--- End quote ---

Thanks for bringing back an old, bad memory.  Yucking it up with the crew getting dressed when the Umpire arrived and put his gear down next to  me & joined the conversation.  All went well, until he exclaimed, "Oh sugar, I left my cleats home."  He lived fairly close, and took off for home, as we all laughed.  Several minutes later he returned with a bad look on his face.  His cleats weren't at home either, and he thought he might have left them at last week's game site. 

We were still dressing and I reached into my bag for something, and there were MY cleats.  Whose cleats had I just put on my feet?  They were the right size, right brand and unfortunately the same size & brand as the Umpire had apparently set down next to my bag. 

Apologies were accepted, all was forgiven and forgotten UNTIL the check, for our Post Game Review, was presented to me.  Thankfully it didn't exceed my game fee (by much).  Like certain mistakes made on the field, the scar tissue remaining forever, prevents repetition.

ElvisLives:
I had spent some time the night before shining both pairs of my officiating shoes, and packing my bag. Got to the game site the next night, 80 miles from home, and took out my uniform stuff. Yep, had a pair of my officiating shoes, all shined up and ready to go. It was a pair, alright - two left shoes. Uh oh.
We were acquainted with the home head coach enough to know that he was also a basketball official. He let us borrow a pair of his BB shoes, which my U wore (a size too large), and I wore my U's shoes (a size too large). But, we got through it.

Ralph Damren:
Don't have a 'no shoe' mishap story, but do recall a hat problem. We finished our pregame and was about to take the field when the umpire blurted : " sNiCkErS OH, @#$% , I left my hat at home  sNiCkErS  :-[ !". Game started in 30 minutes, ump lived 30 miles away  ::) :!#.

SOLUTION : Brewer HS (Witches - black & orange) were hosting Gardner (Tigers -black & orange)
         (1) Found home's AD and asked to 'borrow' a coaches cap - solid black, with orange B and use black tape to cover up the B.
         (2) AD obliged.  :angel:
         (3) Went to visiting coach to explain the 'wardrobe malfunction'. :-[
         (4) Coach responded : " I'll consider it acceptable  :P ONLY IF  :P he will wear one of our hats with black tape over the G, in the second half  ;D .
         (5)  ;D ;D :-[ ;D ;D (5 man-crew),  ;D (V coach)
         (6) Game started... ^good ^good ^no ^TD ^TD (5-man crew)….  :puke: (coach)

[/AND THE BAND PLAYED ON   tR:oLl tR:oLllor]]or]lor]b]

ncwingman:
In my early peewee days, I once got to a field and realized I forgot my hat as well. Fortunately, the peewee administrator was also a high school official and always had his gear in his car (I mean... all of it... every shirt, hat, pair of shoes, flag, he'd ever used in his career).

What was awkward is that he was a rather large man, and I am... not. I thought they only made those hats in two sizes - smaller and larger. He had a third size that shouldn't be humanly possible.

But I technically had a hat on my head for that game and never forgot it again.

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