Former Super Bowl Ref Makes the Right Call

At 77 and just two months removed from right-hip replacement surgery, Jerry Markbreit can’t run up and down the field anymore as the primo NFL referee.

But Markbreit, with wife Bobbie, will celebrate their 50^th anniversary as Skokie residents April 13. The NFL ref still has the fire in his belly to talk about and teach his craft. And, above all, he has a combination sense of humor and self-confidence to let an audience know he knew in his heart he always got the call right.

Nearly 100 members of the were wowed by Markbreit’s storytelling as part of their regular Sunday morning speaker’s series at the society’s headquarters, 7574 N. Lincoln Ave.  They came away with both smiles and perspective from a man who said putting on his referee’s uniform in a 43-year career was like donning “Superman’s uniform … the uniform makes you something in real life you’re not.”

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Refereeing has been his career highlight since he began at 21 officiating touch football and Catholic grammar school games each Sunday, earning a total of $19.

Officiating big games and controversial calls

And Markbreit called ‘em through the ages, from those youth leagues to the Big Ten to four Super Bowls. Early in his career, he worked the famed scoreless 1966 Notre Dame-Michigan State game in East Lansing, and an Ohio State game in which legendary coach Woody Hayes tore up the sideline yard markers, angered at a call.

“The biggest call of my 43-year-career” was in that sole Bears game. Sure enough, all hell broke loose in front of the folks at home Nov. 23, 1986, when he ejected Packers lineman Charles Martin for slamming Chicago quarterback Jim McMahon on his head after the whistle blew. In a connection to the recent NFL penalties against New Orleans Saints coaches for their cash-bounty program to injure opponents, Martin had his own bounty list of numbers on a towel he wore, starting with McMahon’s No. 9 and Walter Payton’s No. 34.  Martin’s ejection was the first in NFL history for a violent act other than fighting.

Martin at first refused to leave the field, but Markbreit, spotting him nearly 10 inches and 100 pounds, grabbed him by the arm. “If you don’t come with me now, I’ll let the Bears kill you,” he told Martin.

There’s a good reason he could talk like that to a hulking lineman.

“I was afraid of nobody,” said Markbreit. “I felt so powerful (as a referee) out there.”

Present-day NFL veteran referees and incoming rookies hear the same anecdotes from Markbreit. Instead of being put out to pasture after he whistled his final call in 1998, he now head trainer of referees. One of the bits of advice is no doubt handling the weekend travel and pressures, away from family and weekday jobs from late summer through early winter.

In Markbreit’s case, he had the perfect life partner in Bobbie. They will celebrate their 56^th anniversary in July. They raised two daughters while Markbreit was gone all those weekends, with only one time in 23 years as an NFL on-field official (1976-98) being assigned to a Bears game at home. The NFL did not want to subject Markbreit to fan pressures if he made a controversial call in his hometown. Added to all those jet mega-miles was his 1-hour, 20-minute commute each way Monday through Friday to his 9-to-5 job at a business in southwest suburban Bedford Park.

“It was tough, but it was probably tougher for Bobbie than for me,” said Marbreit.  “When I traveled, I was with other officials. I wasn’t by myself. When I traveled, she was alone with the kids. It was a big difference. I had a support system on the road for football.

“I could never have given up officiating,” he added. “It gave me something that regular work never gave me.  It gave me the chance to find out how good I was at what I was doing. It’s awfully hard to find out on a regular job how good you are with so many other people involved. Officiating, even though it’s a team sport with seven officials on the field, you’re judged on your own personal performance.”

A lasting partnership through the stresses

Meanwhile, Bobbie Markbreit developed a separate identity from her husband’s public profile to deal with his absences.

“The key is developing my own interests and my own life, which I’ve enjoyed,” she said. Bobbie Markbreit is a longtime writer who just authored her first book, On the Street Where I Lived: Autobiography of a Child. Markbriet is just two books behind her husband, who has penned Armchair Referee, Born to Referee and Last Call.

Markbreit’s eventful life was in keeping with the Humanist Society’s “wide gamut” of speakers, said president Stephen Julstrom, who opened the program with his guitar rendition of “April Showers.” Markbreit sang along without looking at the words, remembering the tune from grammar school.

“We could choose to just have speakers about humanism or religious topics, but we want to go beyond just philosophy,” Julstrom said. “Science, any kind of human endeavor, the arts … this is a series about people in interesting types of work.”

Markbreit had Julstrom’s members in stitches much of the time.  But his talk was in keeping with the concept of ethics. He said he never “made up” a call he realized he missed.

“He’s just an amazingly funny guy,” said member Matt Cole. “What’s amazing is how sure he is in his decision-making.”