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Thirty-Five Years with a Whistle
Courtesy of: HockeyRefs.Com
I didn’t start out in life wanting to be
a hockey referee. I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Outdoor rinks and the streets were where I learned
about the game and how to play it. They still
delivered milk by horse drawn wagons so if we
needed a puck, whether it was the official kind
or provided by the horse we had one. Kids weren’t
organized in leagues until they were 11 years
old. It was before the Zamboni, television and
video games. If you liked hockey, you spent as
much time playing pick up games as you could,
even when the warming shack at our local Community
Club (Carruthers) was closed and the lights were
off. –20 to –30 degrees F, was not uncommon.
I was always small for my age, and my hockey
skills weren’t the best, but I could skate.
I played for 2 years in the Little NHL, a league
organized by Vince Leah, a reporter and columnist
for the Winnipeg Tribune. The games were played
in the Olympic Rink, one of the two indoor rinks
in Winnipeg. I realized after those 2 years, although
the teams I played for (Bruins and Red Wings)
won the league championship, that my future as
a player was zilch. Especially when I didn’t
make the Carruthers Bantam Team. I wanted to do
whatever I could to be a part of the game that
I grew to love. I became the timekeeper for Vince’s
Little NHL League. Three games were played every
Saturday morning at the Olympic Rink starting
at 7 in the morning. After 2 Saturday sessions,
I asked him if I could referee. I just had to
be on the ice. With his approval, I started what
was to become a thirty-five year officiating career.
It was 1953 and I was 14 years old.
After a couple of years, I joined the Greater
Winnipeg Minor Hockey Association. They were in
charge of Bantam, Midget and Juvenile Hockey.
I had not yet gotten my drivers license, so I
had to take the streetcar or bus to whatever community
club rink I was assigned to referee a game at.
All the rinks were outdoors. As I mentioned earlier,
-20 to –30 degrees was not unusual, nor was
the puck splitting in half when it hit the goal
post after a shot on net. The pea in your plastic
whistle would also freeze up, so you would constantly
be banging your whistle into the palm of your
hand to make sure you would get a sound out of
it when you blew it. Frostbite was also a part
of the experience. The line that just came off
the ice would go into the warming shack until
its next shift, but I had to remain on the ice
until the end of the period.
There were no referee schools or on ice clinics.
You learned how to referee by trial and error,
and going to games and watching the more experienced
referees work. There were no supervisors attending
your games. The way to advance to the next level
was word of mouth and coaches requesting that
you be assigned to their game.
Vince Leah would take an all-star team to Goderich,
Ontario for a Pee- Wee Tournament every year.
When I was 16, he took me along. Before arriving
in Goderich, we stopped in Toronto and the team
played a game in Maple Leaf Gardens. I refereed
and it was quite a thrill for me to ref where
the Maple Leafs played. I was the first Referee
from outside of Ontario to referee in the Goderich
Tournament and I had an opportunity to work with
referees from another part of the country. My
Dad worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad,
so I was able to get a pass for the train trip.
The referees were not paid for the games. It was
voluntary. One year, Winnipeg played a team from
Toronto for the Championship, and the Toronto
team requested that I be one of the referees.
What an ego boost. I went to Goderich five years
in a row, the last three, on my own. The Tournament
celebrated its 52nd year this past March.
In 1958, I called Hy Beatty, who was the Referee
in Chief of the Manitoba Jr. Hockey League and
asked him if he could use another linesman. Without
hesitation, he said yes. I was 19 years old, stood
5’7” and weighed 120 pounds. I worked
my first game early that November with Gordie
Kerr and Danny Kurdydyk. Gordie and I worked many
games together after that, as both Linesmen and
Referees, and he was the best on ice partner you
would ever want. When Andy Van Hellemond was inducted
into the NHL Hall of Fame, he mentioned how important
Gordie was to him when he was learning about refereeing.
On December 28, I came home from work and my
Mom and Dad were all excited when I walked in
the door. “Hy Beatty called” and they
wanted me to be a Linesman for that nights game
between the Winnipeg Warriors and New Westminster
Royals of the Western Hockey League. It was a
Professional League, the equivalent of Triple
A Baseball. Hy was the other Linesman and Vern
Buffey, who went on to a have a distinguished
career in the NHL, was the Referee. Vern told
me something that I would take to heart and follow
the rest of my career. “When you go down
for an icing call, skate like you’re going
to go through the end boards. Try and beat the
defender to the puck. After you pick up the puck,
do the same thing when you’re taking it back
to the other end.” In later years, Vern would
be very instrumental in my limited pro career,
besides being a good friend. That night when I
went on the ice for that game, I was considered
to be the youngest game official up till then,
in any Professional Sport. I had gone from officiating
Juvenile Division Hockey to Professional in a
month and a half. At the end of that season, I
was a Linesman for the Memorial Cup Championship
between the Winnipeg Braves and Peterborough Petes.
Overall, it was a pretty good year for skinny
little nineteen year old.
Of all the games, I officiated through the years,
that first year of officiating Jr. A Hockey had
two incidents that stick out as the best of. The
first was a fight between Ted Green of the St.
Boniface Canadiens, who went on to become a defenseman
with the Boston Bruins and Wayne Larkin of the
Winnipeg Braves. It was the last regular season
game and everyone had been waiting the whole year
for those two to tangle. Larkin came skating with
the puck around the St. Boniface net as the game
ended, and Green hit him. They dropped their gloves
and started fighting. The benches emptied and
all the players from both teams formed a circle
around one of the end face off circles. Fans also
jumped onto the ice, but were held out by the
players. There were five of us inside the makeshift
ring. Green and Larkin went toe to toe. My partner
and I let them swing away. The fight seemed to
last for about 4-5 minutes. Part way through it,
Green turned his head toward me and hollered,
“Come on,” wanting us to come in and
break it up, but I just shook my head no. We waited
till they got in a clinch and then had no trouble
breaking them up, because they were so exhausted.
No player from either team tried to intervene,
because they wanted to see what the outcome would
be. I think that Larkin got the better of it.
The other best of was during the 1959 Memorial
Cup Final, Al LeBlanc a forward with the Winnipeg
Braves broke up the sideboards out of his end
with the puck. He was coming to the blue line
that I was responsible for. Chuck Hamilton, a
defenseman for Peterborough, was the one who tried
to stop him. LeBlanc faked Hamilton out three
times and had him tied up in knots. He shot the
puck and scored on Denis DeJordy, the Peterborough
goalie. I think DeJordy was mesmerized by LeBlanc’s
puck handling. That was the prettiest goal I have
ever seen.
The next year, 1959-1960, I worked the full Warriors
home schedule and I was made a referee in the
MJHL. I was 20 years old. On Valentines Day 1960
during a game between the Winnipeg Rangers and
Brandon Wheat Kings, a fight broke out early in
overtime. Everyone on the ice including the goalies
was involved. I was the referee. When the fight
ended everyone on the ice received penalties.
With 52 seconds left in overtime, Brandon scored.
The Rangers started screaming that Brandon had
too many men on the ice. I counted the players
and Brandon did have an extra player. I waved
the goal off. One of my Linesmen came over to
me and told me that the Brandon Goalie came back
onto the ice after the goal. I hadn’t seen
him skate off. I checked with the other Linesman
and he confirmed what the first Linesman told
me. I then reversed myself again and allowed the
goal. At that time, there was no sudden death
overtime. You played the full ten minutes. I was
at center ice ready to take the face off when
all hell broke loose. A fight started at center
ice and both benches emptied. The players in the
penalty box from the first fight joined in. The
strange thing about it was that it wasn’t
a big mob scene. There were 16 different fights
going on, even a player who had been ejected from
the game came onto the ice from his dressing room
with his street clothes on. It looked like one
big conga line from one end of the rink to the
other. The Rink Manager called the police. By
the time the police got there (4 squad cars),
it was all over. I called the game with 52 seconds
left. I had issued 448 minutes in penalties, a
Canadian Junior Hockey record. Talk about the
St. Valentines Day Massacre.
That April I received a letter from Carl Voss,
Referee In Chief of the NHL. He told me he had
heard good things about me and I filled out an
application form. In June, I received an invitation
to the NHL training camp in Toronto for a tryout
as a Linesman. It was still the original 6- team
league. I worked one period of a pre season game
between NY and Toronto. George Hays, who is in
the NHL Hall of Fame, was the other Linesman.
I felt very comfortable on the ice and everything
went well. There were six of us who had been invited
to the camp. They were Bill Friday, Bob Sloan,
Ron Wicks, Dan McLeod, Dan Newell, (Dave’s
brother) and I. Voss thought I was too light,
although, I now weighed 125 pounds. So, it was
back to Winnipeg and Jr. Hockey and some WHL and
Senior Hockey.
In 1962-1963, I refereed in the IHL. I moved
from Winnipeg and worked out of the Twin Cities.
There were six teams in the league and I worked
the circuit. Bruce Hood was the other full time
referee. If you saw the movie Slap Shot, that’s
what the league was like. My first game was in
Omaha and Howie Milford, the Omaha Coach threw
a folding chair across the ice because he thought
the Linesmen had missed an icing. I gave him a
bench penalty and after the game, he called me
over to complain about not getting his chair back.
Another night in Minneapolis, Milford called me
over to the bench before the game started and
complained because the screen around the rink
that ended at either end of their bench was being
held by a cable that got in the way of his players
jumping on and off the ice. No way did it interfere
with the players and it had been there for years.
I told him it was part of the rink and I couldn’t
do anything about it. I skated to center ice to
take the face-off and when I turned around there
was Howie up on the boards with a cable cutter
in his hands cutting the cable. The screen then
collapsed onto the ice. I had one game between
Omaha and St. Paul where I called the game with
15 seconds left after a big brawl. Fans even jumped
onto the ice and got involved. They didn’t
carry a second goalie on the bench in those days,
and during one game, Glenn Ramsey, the goalie
for Omaha called me over and told me he had to
go to the bathroom real bad. I let him go and
told the other team that he had some equipment
trouble that had to be fixed.
During a game in Muskegon, I allowed a disputed
goal to stand against Muskegon and one of the
Muskegon players said if I allowed it he would
shoot the ###%%% puck at my head. I told him he
better be sure and hit me because it would be
coming right back at his head if he missed. Nothing
more came of it.
In another game in Fort Wayne, I was taking a
face-off, and Reg Primeau a center for Ft. Wayne,
brought his stick up and hit me on one of my fingers.
I had to have a splint put on the finger and the
next time I took the face-off, Reg who always
got real low on the face-off, happened to get
my thumb in his eye after I dropped the puck and
was lifting my hand out of the way. As I was skating
up the ice, I looked back and there was Reg bent
over in pain. I did not do that on purpose. But
then I didn’t feel too bad about it either.
From 1963 to 1966, I was back in Winnipeg doing
Jr. A, Intermediate and Senior Hockey. I refereed
games in 1964 for the Canadian Olympic Team, based
in Winnipeg and coached by Father David Bauer.
I had a false tooth that was set in a partial
plate. During a Jr. game, I called a penalty and
the penalized player started jawing at me. I was
giving him a misconduct penalty, and as I said
the word “YOU” as in “You have
ten more” the tooth came flying out of my
mouth and slid across the ice. I did not finish
the sentence until I picked up the tooth and had
it back in my mouth. No more vanity for me. From
the next game on, I always removed the tooth before
I went out on the ice to officiate.
In 1966, I moved to Milwaukee to take a new job.
There was only one hockey team in Milwaukee. It
was University High School and I worked its home
schedule.
My original intention when I moved to the States
was to live in the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis,
St. Paul. I was able to find a job in my trade
(printing). I moved there in 1967.
I joined the Minneapolis Hockey Officials Association
and for the next 21 years refereed High School
and Division 2 College Hockey. In 1968, I was
the local emergency Linesman for the NHL. If they
needed someone to fill in when one of their officials
was injured or for some reason didn’t make
the game, I filled in for them.
On December 28,1968 Vern Buffey was scheduled
to work an afternoon game in Minnesota. Chicago
was the visiting team. Vern couldn’t get
in because of bad weather. I was pressed into
duty. Bob Myers took the referee assignment and
Ron Ego and I were the Linesmen. I finally got
my regular season NHL game. The NHL then instituted
a new rule for the Officials when they traveled.
If they were coming from the East and going to
the West, they had to leave the day before their
assignment. They couldn’t fly out the day
of the game. The guys called it the “Vern
Buffey Rule.”
The World Hockey Association started in 1972.
Vern Buffey, there’s that guy again, was
the Referee in Chief. He asked me to be a Local
Linesman in St. Paul for the Minnesota Fighting
Saints games. You worked with another Linesman
and Referee who were under contract to the League.
Before they opened the new rink in St. Paul,
the Saints games were played in the old St. Paul
Auditorium. We had to turn the shower on before
we went out for the 3rd period so we would have
hot water after the game. One night Bill Friday
who was refereeing, asked me to turn on the shower
as we were leaving the room. I did, and when we
came back to the dressing room after the game
and opened the door, steam came billowing out.
I forgot to also turn on the cold water. Our clothes
hung on us like we had worn them into the shower.
Friday was really pissed at me because he just
had his suit pressed that morning.
Another night, I wasn’t working, the Officials
were coming out to start the 2nd period and couldn’t
get the door open. They tried everything to get
it open, but couldn’t. The guys finally had
to climb out a window and come back into the building
from the outside to continue the game.
I officiated in the Western Collegiate Hockey
Association from 1976 to 1982 first as a Linesman
and then a Referee. The University of Notre Dame
was a member of the league when I first came on
as a Linesman. They had a Priest in the bench
area with them. All I will say is that Priests
do swear and I don’t mean the vow type swearing.
To show you what some coaches will stoop to, Todd
Larson and I had a game at North Dakota. Todd
was wearing a Minnesota Golden Gopher tee shirt
under his referee’s sweater. Minnesota was
not playing North Dakota that night. A couple
of days later Todd called me and told me that
the Commissioner of the league had called him
because the North Dakota coach had called complaining
about the tee shirt. Complaining about his underwear
for God’s sake. The coach was never in our
dressing room, so we believe it was one of the
off ice officials who would come into our room
who told him. Be careful what you say or do in
front of others. In this case, what you wear.
I never dwelled on when I would retire. Never
discussed it with anyone, not even my wife. I
realized that the kids were getting bigger, skating
faster and staying the same age, while I was getting
older and slower. I was lying in bed one June
night in 1988 and I thought to myself that’s
it I’m hanging up the whistle. Just like
the thousands of other calls I made, it was firm
and concise.
The game has changed so much from when I started
back in 1953. The players are bigger and faster.
The equipment is so much more advanced. The only
protection I wore was a jock and cup, and shin
pads. Later, I switched to soccer shin pads and
wrestler’s kneepads because that combination
was lighter. I was fortunate enough to never have
any bones broken, but I did receive a few stitches
and some bumps, bruises and pulls.
I refereed in four different decades, technically
five because I did referee the last Minnesota
North Stars Old Timers game in 1991. I saw changes
in the sweaters, going from a white shirt, black
tie and white pullover sweater to the striped
shirt. Protective equipment-helmets, elbow-pads,
made for referee shin pads, padded pants and molded
skates. One of the biggest was the use of video
replay. It just made the Referees job much tougher.
Coaches now think that they have the proof on
tape why they lost the game. The referee did it.
When I was supervising for the Minneapolis Officials
after I retired, I had one High School coach tell
me that the tape showed him that the Referee made
a bad call on a penalty to their goalie. I happened
to have been at that game and felt the Ref made
a good call. I even told him so after the game.
What I didn’t ask the coach was if the tape
also showed a player from the opposing team that
was short handed at the time, skate through his
team and score a goal. Also, did the tape show
the coaches son losing a face-off in their end
and the opposition scoring the winning goal? Coaches,
players and fans look at the game the way they
want to. Referees look at the game the way they
have to.
Earning the respect of players, coaches and fellow
officials is a very important part of the game.
It makes your job easier. You do that by skating
hard, knowing the rules, being honest, being fair,
being in good condition, showing respect to the
players and using common sense. Also, be consistent,
firm in your calls and in position. I used the
Rule Book as a guide not a God. Learn from your
mistakes, because you will make them. And don’t
criticize fellow officials behind their backs.
Don’t hesitate to help younger and newer
officials.
In 1999, I attended a fifty-year reunion of the
1949 Carruthers Habs. They won the Manitoba Provincial
Bantam Championship that year. I didn’t play
for them but was a fan and rink rat. That was
the team that really got me interested in hockey.
One of the other attendees was an old school friend
and someone who I used to play pick up games with.
We exchanged life experiences as you do when you
haven’t seen someone for a lot of years and
he told me that I lived the life he dreamed about.
Well, I lived the life I dreamed about. Not everyone
one can say that about their life.
This past April I was informed that I had been
elected to the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame. To
say that I was overwhelmed would be an understatement.
When you think about it, how many referees are
ever elected to any Halls of Fame? There are so
many people that I owe thanks to, especially the
many Referees and Linesmen I worked with and learned
from over the years. Also, those people that encouraged,
supported and taught me. There is a group of people
that you don’t hear too much about and even
though you don’t belong to their team they
are there when you need them, the Trainers and
Equipment Managers. I couldn’t have done
it by myself.
Morley Meyers is originally from Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada. He started officiating in 1953
and retired in 1988 after thirty-five years of
hockey officiating. During his career he worked
everything from minor hockey to the NHL. Morley
currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his
wife.
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