I have been asked many times how I got started in football officiating. Remember, that happened 48 years ago, and the procedure today is somewhat different.

To start with, I had played just a little football at Sewanee and later played a year on the base football team at Keesler Air Force Base in 1956. To my mind, the officiating at our games at Keesler was spotty and very inconsistent, and that whetted my interest in learning the rules of the game.

After my discharge, I returned to Natchez and had decided to try to become an official. I knew Clarence Bowlin, who was a longtime official, and Clarence had me go to a clinic or two and sold me an outfit (from The Sports Center, of course).

My first assignment in the fall of 1957 was to help officiate a junior high game at Cathedral. Clarence said there would be a couple of older officials there.

Well, game time came and went and no other official showed up.

Don Alonzo, then coaching everything at Cathedral, gave me a couple of his high school players to help officiate, and we had the game. I found out quickly that you had better at least look like you know what you are doing.

That season I worked a few more junior high and high school games at places like Bude and Roxie before moving from head linesman to referee, and then to the Southeastern Conference 10 years later. It was a wonderful career and provided some great family trips and plenty of big-game thrills.

Probably the biggest thrill was during the 1987 Fiesta Bowl which matched Miami and Penn State for the national championship. On Miami’s final play, from the Penn State 5 Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testerverde was throwing into my corner of the end zone with the game and national title on the line.

Fans will remember that Penn State picked off the pass and won the championship, but that play got my attention, I will tell you. I still picture every moment of that play like it was last night.

Officiating is a wonderful and fulfilling avocation but is obviously not for everyone. There are some very interesting and informative Web sites devoted to officiating (any sport) that give all the information one might need if you might be interested in sports officiating.

A common mistake is the thought you must have played a sport in order to officiate that sport. It can help in some cases, but interest and desire are what really count.

Some well-known former players who officiated in the SEC were some of the weakest officials, and some of the better officials had never played the game past high school, and some not at all. Some of those former great players didn’t think they had anything else to learn.

The Mississippi High School Activities Association has a very informative Web site. The address is misshsaa.com, and it has some good information and links to other sites which can be a guide to an individual interested in officiating.

And that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and former Natchez resident. Reach him at

AlanWard39157@aol.com

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