Obituary
In memoriam 2024
Remembering those from the officiating family who we lost in 2024
Football Zebras takes a look back at the lives and careers of the NFL officials who left us in 2024, including three recipients of the Art McNally Award.
Sanford Rivers
January 16. Sanford Rivers passed away at age 80 from cancer. Rivers became a NFL head linesman in 1989 and worked on crews lead by Dick Jorgensen, Gerald Austin, Tom Dooley, Dale Hamer, Gary Lane, Ron Winter, Bernie Kukar. He was the first official to wear number 121, and wore it for his entire career.
Rivers was an accomplished three-sport athlete in high school — football, track and baseball — and went on to play three years of football in college. He was a Youngstown State graduate and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1993.
Rivers worked 2 Wild Card Playoffs, 3 Divisional Playoffs, a Conference Championship game, and Super Bowl XXXIII.
In a controversial move, Rivers was one of several officials fired in 2002, allegedly for being overweight. Rivers and several others won a grievance, and he returned to the field in 2003.
Rivers retired from the NFL after that 2003 season at age 61 and was appointed to the Pennsylvania gaming commission. The state had just passed a measure legalizing limited slot machine locations, and Governor Ed Rendell said the commission needed someone of Rivers’ integrity to be a member.
“My time with the NFL has served as continual challenge to my ability to judge others and deliver fairness,” Rivers said in 2004.
Rogers Redding
April 7. Rogers Redding, former college football referee, supervisor and rules editor died April 7 at the age of 81.
Redding was a 30-year college football officiating veteran of the Southwest Conference and the Southeastern Conference. After retiring from the field, Redding was a replay official, supervisor of officials for the SEC, then rules editor and national coordinator of the CFO — the centralized officiating entity formed in 2007.
Redding gave back to high school officiating, too. Each year he published The Redding Study Guide, an invaluable tool to help high school officials learn NFHS rules.
Jack Nix
April 12. Jack Nix, a back judge for 10 seasons, died a few days short of his 96th birthday. Nix was the last living NFL official from the 1950s. Nix also was a receiver for the 49ers in the 1950 season, the team’s first season after moving to the NFL. He was drafted in the 20th round that year. He also was on the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1951, scoring one of their two touchdowns in their Grey Cup defeat. He was named to the CFL Western Union all-star team. His career was cut short by a knee injury, but his stint with the Roughriders allowed him to meet his future wife, Celia, to whom he was married for 70 years.
Nix was the last to work the original “back judge” position. Today, that position is downfield middle. But in Nix’s era, the back judge started behind the line of scrimmage to monitor the offensive backs. The operative word is started, because the back judge followed receivers downfield while also monitoring the sideline opposite of the head linesman. This meant that back judges had to have speed and agility, which Nix had a distinct advantage as a former receiver.
One of the games Nix worked was a Cowboys-Browns game just two days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Also on that crew was field judge Jim Tunney, and both were the last living NFL officials to work that day. That particular game was under heightened security, as there was a public upwelling of anger toward the city of Dallas. The stadium announcer only referred to the team as the Cowboys.
There were very few postseason games to work in that era, but Nix officiated two Bert Bell Playoff Bowls, a third-place consolation game the NFL played in the 1960s and a couple of Pro Bowls. He also was an alternate official for two NFL Championship Games, one which in Green Bay was the last league title game played in snow.
Nix served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. He also was a very accomplished jazz pianist.
James Robinson
August 31. James Robinson, a Big Ten replay official, died in Ann Arbor. He was to be the replay official for Fresno State-Michigan game when he collapsed during pregame.
A resident of Kokomo, Indiana, Robinson worked the Indiana State Championships in football, basketball and baseball. He worked as a college football official on the field in the Mid-American and Big Ten conferences. After leaving the field, Robinson was a Big Ten replay official. 2024 was reportedly going to be his last season.
In 2020, Robinson was the replay official on the Big Ten’s first all-Black officiating crew in the season opener for Michigan and Minnesota.
A popular official across the state of Indiana, Robinson spent 40 years in some capacity as an official, observer, and rules interpreter.
Ron Spitler
In April, the officiating community was informed that Ron Spitler, a NFL official who worked three different positions, called four championship games, as well as college basketball games had passed away at the age of 86 on Sept. 5, 2023.
A Kansas native, Spitler was hired into the NFL in 1982 and worked 22 seasons, retiring after the 2003 season. He worked the back judge, field judge, and side judge and wore number 119 his entire career. He worked 11 playoff games: three wild card contests, four divisional playoffs, and four conference championships.
While Spitler didn’t work a Super Bowl, he did reach the pinnacle in another sport. In 1984 he reached the pinnacle of college basketball, by calling the national championship game between Georgetown and Houston.
Spitler was also one of those officials, along with Sanford Rivers, fired at the end of the 2002 season and also successfully appealed his termination. He retired following the 2003 season.
Bill Quinby
Bill Quinby passed away April 20. He was a side judge for 17-seasons and wore number 58 for most of his career.
He was assigned a total of 13 playoff games in 17 seasons: three wild card games, four divisional playoffs, five conference championship games and Super Bowl XIX. He worked college football and NFL football for several seasons with referee Jerry Markbreit.
Being assigned to five championship games is something to be proud of. Those championship assignments included two instant classics: the 1987 AFC Championship game (“The Fumble”), and the 1990 NFC Championship game where the New York Giants upset the favored San Francisco 49ers, 15-13.
Off the field, Quinby worked several positions at Coe College and was a civic leader in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A city council member called Quinby the “moral compass” of the city.
Al Jury
November 7. Al Jury, a multisport athlete, a multisport official (including 26 seasons in the NFL), and a retired California Highway Patrol officer, died at the age of 83. Jury, who began his officiating career at age 18, worked in the NFL from 1978 to 2004 and wore number 106 for most of his officiating career.
Jury didn’t get a postseason assignment until the 1983 Pro Bowl. His first playoff game was a doozy. Jury’s first playoff game was the 1984 NFC Championship Game between the 49ers and the Bears. In total, Jury worked 21 playoff games: three wild card games, eight divisional playoffs, five conference championships and five Super Bowls (XX, XXII, XXIV, XXVIII, and XXXIV). His final Super Bowl call was the final play of Super Bowl XXXIV, where he marked the Tennessee Titans Kevin Dyson “one yard short.”
The NFL presented Jury with the Art McNally Award in 2014.
Dale Hamer
November 29. Dale Hamer, a 22-year NFL official who called two Super Bowls and was a replay official after he left the field, died at age 87. He wore number 104 for most of his career.
Hamer joined the NFL in 1978 as a line judge. He was also a head linesman and referee during his career. He missed one season in 1995 due to heart valve surgery. He retired after the 2001 season.
During his career, Hamer worked a total of 12 playoff assignments on the field – nine as a head linesman and three as a referee. He worked six wild card games, three divisional playoffs, one conference championship as a referee, and Super Bowls XVII and XXII as a head linesman. He was also the head of the officials union from 1996 – 1999.
After Hamer left the field, he was a replay official from 2002 to 2014. He worked a total 348 regular and postseason games on the field — 123 of those at the referee position — and 187 games as a replay official for a total of 535 games.
Jim Tunney
December 12. Jim Tunney, the “Dean of NFL Referees” died at age 95. Tunney worked in the NFL as a field judge and referee. He wore number 32 for most of his career.
His 31-year NFL career started in 1960, having declined an invitation to join the startup AFL. He was a field judge through the 1966 season, and was at the referee position until his retirement in 1990. Tunney and referee Ben Dreith have the record for the longest number of years of service.
In his career, he called a total of 19 playoff games: eight divisional playoffs, eight conference championships and three Super Bowls (VI, XI, and XII). Tunney was the first official to work consecutive Super Bowls.
All through the 1970s and into the 1980s, Tunney earned the moniker “Dean of NFL Referees.” What made Tunney such a premiere referee was his disposition on the field. Tunney’s signals were so distinctive, proper and dignified that he was used as a model for a guide to the officials signals for over a decade.
He has been nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame several times, and Football Zebras nominated him in our first class of officials worthy of enshrinement in Canton. He was the recipient of the Art McNally Award in 2017.
He had a prolific “retirement” as he continued public speaking, authored five books, and was a mentor to new NFL referees, including Brad Allen, Ron Torbert and Craig Wrolstad. His weekly column The Tunney Side of Sports, came to an end in January 2024 after a run of 930 insightful articles.
Bob Wagner
December 16. Robert Wagner died last month at the age of 87. Born in Pennsylvania, Wagner played football at Penn State. After graduation Wagner went to work for Carpenter Steel Company, and he began to officiate high school football and basketball.
Wagner’s job transferred him to St. Louis where he spent a majority of the rest of his life. His officiating career continued as well as he worked Big 8 football, and worked the Cotton Bowl.
The NFL hired Wagner in 1985, and he worked as an umpire his entire career, retiring in 2002. He wore number 100 for his entire career. During his NFL career, Wagner worked five wild card games and two divisional playoff games. He was the alternate umpire for Super Bowl XXXIV.
Embed from Getty ImagesDick Creed
December 28. Former NFL deep wing Dick Creed passed away two days after his 93rd birthday.
A native of Ohio, Creed worked for 21 years as a NFL side judge and field judge (the current position designation), and another 15 years as a NFL replay official. He was hired in 1978, when the NFL staffed up as it went to seven-person crews. He wore number 61 for most of his career.
After graduating from high school, Creed went to the University of Louisville on a football scholarship. He was then drafted and served three years in the Marine Corps. After an honorable discharge, he completed his education at Youngstown College. He then started his own construction company.
After college, Creed started officiating high school football and basketball. He worked his way up through the ranks and joined the NFL in 1978. For Creed’s first nine seasons, he was assigned to referee Pat Haggerty’s crew. He also worked on crews lead by Gordon McCarter, Tom White, Red Cashion, Bernie Kukar and Walt Coleman.
In his 21 seasons, Creed worked 18 playoff games: seven wild card games, eight divisional games, one conference championship and Super Bowls XXVI and XXX.
After Creed left the field, he was a replay official for 15 seasons. He also enjoyed watching his son officiate basketball and football.
Our sympathies to all who knew these outstanding officials and loved them. May their memories be a comfort and blessing.
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Anonymous
January 4, 2025 at 8:02 pm
Nicely done.
Anonymous
January 4, 2025 at 8:10 pm
I remember Jim Tunney as the most “elegant” referee in the 70s and 80s. His movements were always like the minimum necessary, at a time when each referee seemed to have its own personality (Red Cashion, Ben Dreith, etc.). After heading both SB VI, VII, & XII, why he did not referee other SBs? Is it true that he was not well liked by other officials? Jorge Molina, Mexico Cityl