NFL refs have deep area roots
Western Pa. home to not only players, but officials as well
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Once, this place was known as the cradle of quarterbacks. Western Pennsylvania sent a crew of them to the NFL, as it did all types of football players, coaches, scouts and even those who cover the sport in the media around the country.
There is one more level of employment in the NFL that has deep Western Pennsylvania roots — the officials, the referees, umpires, line and side judges, etc. who have worked games since practically the league's inception.
So many from Western Pennsylvania went on to work in the NFL, including its officials, because it was in their blood. Pittsburgh, after all, is the official birthplace of pro football.
“I can honestly say, coming from Pittsburgh it’s an advantage because the old timers had such a good reputation that you were accepted because you were coming from Pittsburgh,’’ said Murrysville’sDale Hamer.
Hamer, a Fayette City native and California University graduate, joined the NFL in 1978 as a line judge and worked his way up to referee. He served 14 years on the field, then became a replay official for another 13 years. He followed his great uncle Jim Hamer, who officiated NFL games for 13 years through 1959.
“I always felt I got treated differently when I came in as a rookie because I was from Pittsburgh and they expected more of you because you were from Pittsburgh,’’ Dale Hamer said.
Hamer is an amateur historian of NFL officials and documented those who worked pro games from the Pittsburgh area. It started with Harry Robb of Pitcairn and Penn State in 1925, five years after the NFL was organized and eight years before the Steelers were founded. He worked as an umpire for 27 years, starting when there were just four officials on the field. Today there are seven, and they’re talking about adding another.
The newest official from the area is Mark Pellis, an umpire from Greensburg and Allegheny College who began working games in 2014. Other current game officials from Western Pennsylvania are the Bergman brothers, Jeff and Jerry, and the Steratore brothers, Tony and Gene.
The Bergmans, from Pittsburgh, both went to Robert Morris. Their father, Jerry, worked 30 years as a head linesman in the NFL. The Steratores, from Uniontown, are sons of Gene, a respected longtime college and high school official in football and basketball. Like Hamer, the Steratore brothers went to California (Pa.).
Tom Stabile of Natrona Heights and Slippery Rock University officiated in the NFL for 20 years as a head linesman until his retirement after the 2014 season. He now works for the league training officials.
Among other officials from Western Pennsylvania who worked since the 1970 NFL merger:
• Ace Heberling of Pittsburgh and Washington & Jefferson; he was a longtime executive director of the WPIAL and retired after 22 years as a side judge and ref.
• Sanford Rivers, a Churchill resident and Youngstown State University grad, was a head linesman for 15 years until his retirement in 2003 to take a job on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
• Joe Connell, a 37-year veteran umpire from Charleroi and Pitt who was the umpire who can be seen signaling touchdown on Bart Starr’s quarterback sneak that lifted Green Bay over Dallas in the NFL championship game of 1967, the famous Ice Bowl.
Hamer’s career spanned from the days when only 16 mm film was used and instant replay wasn’t available to help calls through the digital technology that allows officials to have almost instant access to reviewing their work.
As a referee, he would arrive at his hotel on Saturday at his assigned venue. Then, he would get a box of film sent by the NFL, pull a sheet off his bed, duct tape it to the wall and set up the projector. Six other officials would gather there at 4 p.m. and they’d watch tape of the previous week’s game.
“We never talked about last week’s game all week until we got there,’’ Hamer said. “We’d get a report in an envelope from [the league] and read it. We never talked about last week’s game all week.”
Today, officials receive a television copy of the game they just worked as they leave the stadium so they can watch it on the way home. They receive the coaches’ video Monday morning. By Tuesday, they are on next week’s assignment while many of them pursue their other jobs.
Hamer was an administrator at California University while he was an official. Heberling led the WPIAL. The Steratores own a business.
Working as an official in theNFL always has been considered a part-time job and that’s been controversial. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league will hire some officials on a fulltimebasis this year.
Hamer does not see how that will go over. Will officials have to report to the same place to work all week, for example?
“I just don’t see what they’re going to have them do. Even if it’s only one member of the crew, they still have to be in New York at some time. Ed Hochuli lives in Arizona. He’s not going to go to New York and live. I don’t know how they can work it out.”
They could always bring in a referee to rule on it.