Larry Nemmers was standing at midfield in Kinnick Stadium in 1975. He was 33 years old, and the Iowa Hawkeyes were playing the visiting Northwestern Wildcats. The sun was shining, the Iowa band was playing the national anthem, the crowd was on it`s feet-and Nemmers was crying like a baby.
”It was the fruition of a dream come true,” said Nemmers.
”When I was 28, I set two goals that I wanted to accomplish by the time I was 35: I wanted to become a Big 10 official and a high school principal. That Iowa-Northwestern game was a great moment for me. I`ll never forget. I`m standing there crying, and Don Mason, the umpire who was from Michigan, put his arm around me and said, `Don`t worry, son, the same thing happened to me at my first Michigan State Spartans game, 18 years ago.` ”
Today, Nemmers, 49, of Bartlett, is a head referee in the National Football League. After six years as a side judge, he became a referee and crew chief last season. As for his other ambition, Nemmers was named principal of Elgin High School in 1981, only two years past his goal, at age 37.
Unlike other major sports, the NFL uses part-time officials. During the week they are personnel directors, marketing managers, pharmacists, law enforcement officers, attorneys and salesmen.
On Sunday, they put on their black-and-white-striped shirts and grab their whistles. NFL officials earn from $650 to $2,400 per game, depending on experience.
The jobs of NFL referee and high school principal are similar in many ways. ”They are both leadership roles,” said Nemmers, who wears No. 20 in his role as referee. ”Both jobs are very time-consuming, and they involve dealing with people and helping to evaluate their performances.”
Paul Green of Elgin, the former Elgin Larkin High School principal, isn`t the least bit surprised by Nemmers` success. ”Larry has always had goals, and he`s an overachiever at everything he`s tried to do,” he said. ”He`s one of those people with a winning personality. And even though his job as dean of students at Larkin involved disciplining the students, I know that he was admired by the students. Plus, I`ve never heard an unkind word about his officiating.”
Nemmers` journey to become an NFL ”zebra” began in his hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, where he was one of the stars of the Columbus High School football, basketball and baseball teams, a student council representative and a member of the Columbus High Science Club. He earned a football scholarship to Upper Iowa University, where he had a solid career as a running back, defensive back and kick returner. It was in college where Nemmers first considered trading his shoulder pads for a yellow hanky.
”The baseball coach at Upper Iowa, Andrae Neadau, was also a football ref,” Nemmers said. ”He talked to the football coach and got me excused from our Friday night pre-game curfew so I could officiate high school football games. Coach Neaudau`s wife even made my whole referee`s uniform for mme. I did that my junior and senior years in college.”
Nemmers wasn`t ready to give up football after graduation, though.
Following a tryout with George Halas` Chicago Bears in 1965, the same year future Hall of Famers Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers were Bear rookies, Nemmers played semi-pro ball with the Chicago Owls and later the Joliet Explorers. But after three seasons of playing for $200 per game, Nemmers decided he`d had enough. It was time to build a future.
In 1965, the same year he started playing semi-pro ball, Nemmers also got a job teaching science at Kimball Middle School in Elgin. He helped coach football at Larkin High School, and he stayed involved in refereeing by doing local pee-wee games. But by 1968, Nemmers came to the proverbial crossroads of his career.
”I had a big decision to make that year,” he remembered. ”There were head coaching jobs available at St. Edward`s High School in Elgin and my alma mater, Columbus in Waterloo. I was also offered the position of science coordinator for District U-46, which I accepted. And two years later I became dean of students at Larkin. I gave up my coaching aspirations, and that gave me a chance to really get into officiating on the weekends, which was my first love, anyway.”
Nemmers and fellow Elginites Wally Wetzel, Dick Sharp and Phil Hudgens officiated area high school games on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. Sundays were spent reffing Chicago Catholic League games with Big 10 officials like Dan Davie, Otho Kortz and Tom Quinn.
Wetzel, who owns his own construction company in South Elgin, gave up reffing six years ago. Yet he stays involved indirectly by following the career of Nemmers, his old partner.
”Larry`s a student of the rules of football, plain and simple,” Wetzel said. ”He`s very dedicated, very poised and very likeable. When we were working together, Larry would always come up with insights the rest of us never thought of. And he had a great rapport with the coaches.”
By 1972 Nemmers was doing small college games with teams like North Park and Wheaton College. The next year he graduated to games involving bigger schools such as Northern Illinois, Illinois State and Eastern Illinois. And in 1975, Herman Rohrig, Big 10 director of officials, came calling.
”One of the Big 10 officials slipped a disc, which opened up a position for me,” Nemmers said.
Nemmers stayed in the Big 10 for nine years, including working the 1984 Rose Bowl between UCLA and Illinois. In 1985, he reached the pinnacle of his part-time profession when he was hired by the NFL. He got the word from the league office while on a skiing vacation in Colorado.
”Getting into the National Football League was a series of events,” he said. ”I really didn`t have the NFL as a goal, but in 1983 Herm Rohrig encouraged me to apply, so I did.
”The league sends observers to three or four games, and they grant you an interview if they like what they see,” recalled Nemmers. ”I flew to New York for a four-hour psychological test, and they do an extensive check of your background.
”Do I visit the racetrack? Do I have a drug problem? How successful are you in your chosen field? NFL officials have to be beyond reproach,” said Nemmers.
Jerry Seeman, the NFL`s director of officiating, said he`s pleased with Nemmers` progress as a referee. ”Larry shows great leadership skills, as evidenced by his job as principal of Elgin High School,” said Seeman, himself a former NFL referee. ”He works well with people, he has an excellent grasp of the rulebook and he presents himself well, including his excellent use of the microphone to explain calls to the fans.
”Larry Nemmers epitomizes the professionalism we expect from our officials.”
The NFL season runs from August through January, but being an official is definitely a year-round pursuit. ”While it`s not as intense in the off-season, I still average 45 minutes a day reviewing the rule book, watching films, going over mechanics, talking on the phone to my crew members,” he said.
Things get more hectic during the season. Nemmers makes sure that Elgin High School runs smoothly from Monday through Friday. Then on Saturday morning he`s at O`Hare Airport, en route to Atlanta, Buffalo, Denver or wherever he`s assigned to work that weekend. (He never does Bear games in Chicago.) Nemmers arrives at about 1 p.m. on Saturday and is greeted at his hotel with a package from National Football League headquarters in New York.
”The package contains videotapes from the previous week`s game we worked,” Nemmers said. ”The game is filmed from the end zone and from the 50-yard line. There`s also a report card from the league office that includes good calls we made, calls we didn`t make and reviews of any controversial plays.
”The NFL also sends a weekly training tape to let us see what some of the other crews are doing. This whole process takes about five hours,” said Nemmers. ”Then we`ll go to dinner, and then it`s back to the hotel for a good night`s sleep. I`ll always review the rule book before I go to sleep the night before a game.”
On game day, Nemmers and the six other members of his crew attend church services, eat breakfast and then meet at the hotel for a final review. They arrive at the stadium two hours and 15 minutes before kickoff. As crew chief, Nemmers has a number of pre-game responsibilities, including testing the on-field microphone, meeting with TV producers, preparing post-game paperwork and inspecting the field and players` equipment.
By Monday morning, he`s back behind his desk at Elgin High School, overseeing 3,000 students and 199 teachers, as opposed to six officials, 90 football players and two coaching staffs.
According to Nemmers, Elgin High students enjoy seeing their principal on TV on Sunday afternoons.
”They`ll always be asking me late in the week where I`ll be on Sunday, and many students make a special effort to watch for me on TV,” he said.
”One student told me her cousin from Florida didn`t believe her when she told him that her principal was an NFL official.”
And while Nemmers` weekend avocation is no secret around Elgin High School, he does his best to separate the two jobs. According to Dr. Jan Lochary of Bartlett, School District U-46 superintendent and Nemmers` direct supervisor, conflicts between his two demanding professions are avoided because he is an educator first and foremost.
”Larry is an extremely well-organized, talented leader,” Lochary said.
”He works very well with the team he has in place at Elgin High, and he`s a great role model for the students. I brag about what he does. I think it`s wonderful that he`s risen to the top in two fields. It speaks to his ability to stir multiple pots.”
His wife, Sherry, said she`s used to not having her husband around most autumn weekends, and Nemmers admits that he would never make it as an NFL official ”without such an understanding spouse.”
She accompanies her husband to three or four games each season. ”I like to go to cities where the weather is nice or where they have a dome,” Sherry said. ”I love Boston, and San Diego and New Orleans are great cities.”
The Nemmers` home on a quiet street a few blocks from downtown Bartlett is his sanctuary from the hectic pace of running a large suburban high school during the week and the violent world of pro football on weekends. An upstairs office in his home includes souvenirs from his officiating career: Super Bowl XXV and Rose Bowl memorabilia and team photos of the various officiating crews he`s worked with.
Although he`s been officiating football games for more than a quarter-century, Nemmers still gets butterflies before every kickoff. ”There`s always a rush of adrenaline before the whistle blows to start the game,” he said. ”But you can`t let the pressure get to you under any circumstances. You can`t have your voice cracking when you make a call.”
One thing officials can never do is let their decisions be influenced by the home crowd. ”When I make a call, I don`t look at the player or the team. I react to the action, and that`s what we`re trained to do,” he said.
A good official also has strong people skills. Nemmers said players often use foul language before, during and after plays, but he always lets it go in one ear and out the other.
Well, almost always.
”Players will direct foul language at you, but in the NFL you chalk it up to their emotions,” he said. ”If they persist, you give them strong eye contact, and they`ll usually stop. If they don`t, then you have to throw the flag. In the long run, the players and coaches respect the job we do.”
As to the issue of instant replay, Nemmers said, ”It makes no difference to me. Instant replay wouldn`t affect the calls I made either way.
”I was concerned with the length of the game interruptions, though. I think it will be back in a few years,” he added, ”but only to correct calls that are obviously wrong.”
There have been a lot of big games over the years, including Illinois state high school championship games in football and basketball, the Rose Bowl and several NFL playoff games. But what Nemmers calls his ”thrill of a lifetime” was when he got the chance to officiate Super Bowl XXV between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills.
Adding to the excitement was the fact that he was joined at the game by his wife and three sons from a previous marriage. Shane, 26, Lance, 23, and Brett, 20, all played football at Larkin High School.
Many football fans call the Giants` 20-19 victory the greatest Super Bowl ever played. It was certainly the most emotional, and Nemmers was right in the thick of things.
”You have to remember, Super Bowl XXV was in the height of the Desert Storm operation,” said Nemmers, who still wears his official NFL Super Bowl ring. ”There was a lot of flag waving, jets were flying over Tampa Stadium, and then Whitney Houston sang the national anthem. There wasn`t a dry eye in the stadium.”
For most people, two such high-pressure jobs-high school principal and NFL official-would be too much to handle, but Nemmers scoffs at the notion.
”Some people say my schedule is hectic, but I disagree,” he said. ”I have a lot of time demands, but that doesn`t bother me. I spend a lot of nights at Elgin High School, and I`m on the road on weekends. It`s demanding, yes, but I love it. I wouldn`t change a thing.”
