The Head Referee of the Civil War was a UO alum

by Jake on Dec 3, 2007 10:30 PM PST in Football

As I was watching the television replay of the Civil War, something struck me more than the replay of James Rodgers' game winning touchdown, the penalty on the field goal, or the stuffage of Jonathan Stewart on the final play of the game. Here's a excerpt from Dan Fouts (a Duck alum) and Tim Brant's broadcast on ABC. I'm sure you'll recognize the play as Oregon's first kickoff return of the game.

Dan: Andiel Brown is back deep for the Ducks. Ball will bounce on the ground, and this will be Patrick Chung... And it's a reverse to Derrick Jones! And he's got room! Flag is down as Jones hits midfield. Jones now at the 40, and knocked out of bounds, but a flag is down back at the 23 yard line.

Tim: Usually that means a block in the back, but there were so many people right there it was hard to see if anyone was blocking in the back or blocking in the front. -Referee signals-. It was a hold.

Dan: Jack Folliard is our referee, GRADUATE OF THE ~~UNIVERSITY OF OREGON~~ Lewis and Clark LAW SCHOOL.

Tim: The call was holding.

Dan: Special Teams coach Tom Osbourne, pulling out all the stops today.

[...]

Can you believe that? I don't care if this guy is the best referee in the world. I don't care if he's the Executive Director of the Oregon Athletic Officials Association. This guy is a Duck, he has Duck stuff in his closet, and probably wears a UO hat when he goes out to his mailbox to get the paper in the morning. Anyone who went to the University or Oregon or Oregon State University has an opinion on this game. And I thought referees were supposed to be unbiased.

This flat out should not be allowed. The Pac-10 could have easily sent Jack to the Cal/ Stanford game. Or the Arizona/ Arizona State game. Or USC/ UCLA. But no, they send him to be the head referee for a rivalry game involving his ALMA MATER. I don't care if this is the best crew in the nation. The guy has a bias.

Now, some may argue that the penalty mentioned above (Oregon's attempt at a lateral on their first kickoff return) was against the Ducks. It was. In fact, this game had very few penalties for a rivalry game. But both teams got screwed over on penalties several times during the game, and if it wasn't for a "communication error" by the Ducks, the game would have been decided by a penalty.

This is flat out wrong. I'm sure it's happened before if it happened in the 14th week of the 2007 season. It's probably been happening ever since Rutgers played Princeton in the first recognized intercollegiate football game in 1869.

In such a storied and heated in-state rivalry, it is unfair to give a team any advantage over the other. Allowing an alumni of one team or the other to be a referee for the game is wrong.

The Beavers still came out on top, but it's the little things that go under the radar, like this, that make big differences.

I would love to hear your responses in the comment thread below.

Update [2007-12-4 21:48:22 by Jake]: Looks like this story is false, after all. It appears Dan Fouts was quoting mis-infirmation, as this article clearly states that Jack Folliard went to Lewis and Clark.

GO BEAVERS!

--JB--

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Comments

Referee?

I don't know what the Pac-10's policy is on refs, but in the SEC you have to be (1) a former SEC player or (2) the son of a former official. Hence, you will always get someone with a grudge to grind.

What's worse, this guy is a LAWYER. And, it sounds like something Ole Pi$$ would pull against us (Miss St). One year, a former Bama WR was the back judge in our game against them that we lost late in the game on - you guess it - offensive pass interference that was not called, IMO.

Have liked y'all since the days of The Great Pumpkin & Earthquake Enyart. Good luck in the Nut Bowl, which is fittingly played in SF.

by yoyofutbawl on Dec 4, 2007 1:25 PM PST 0 recs

referees

As a former official, I can tell you that the vast majority don't give a damn who wins or loses the game... they just want to call a good game.

However, I think most would agree that it is not a good idea to put someone in a position that their integrity could be questioned. So, why put an alum in a game involving their alma mater? Their are other games.

Truthfully, I have never known an official in some thirty years to favor a team because of an alumni association. I have known some to be very uneasy about doing an alum game and in order to refute allegations of bias there may have been calls they could have gone either way that went against their alum team simply to avoid the claim of prejudice.

Its just not a good idea to have alums do big games involving their alma maters. It puts refs in a bad position too. Don't forget, the only thing a ref really has is his integrity. Once he loses that he's no good on the field in any game. No one likes their integrity questioned, especially game officials.

by Muddapucker on Dec 5, 2007 11:13 AM PST 0 recs

I was going to say the same thing...

I've reffed a very little bit in my lifetime (Intramurals baby!!). The idea that a referee would make a conscious decision to make an incorrect call would be very disturbing to me, and I would like to believe that it hardly ever (if ever) happens. You don't get into reffing to help a certain team win, and you certainly don't get to be a Pac-10 official who's reffed a BCS championship game without being pretty good at what you do. Will you still make mistakes? Of course. But I will hardly ever buy into the idea that a ref intentionally blows a call.

Spot on about doing games for your alma maters also. I'm pretty sure that's a general rule for most leagues, so I was shocked at first when we thought the guy was a UO alum. Mike Leach was pissed about a guy from Austin reffing the UT-Tech game. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

by funk on Dec 5, 2007 1:03 PM PST up 0 recs