The article in the Oct. 6 Tribune, “Public League officials under fire,” raised some good issues but was a little loose on many facts and in error on several. The standard fee for a varsity high school football game in the suburbs is $54, not $48 as cited in the article. While that sounds better, keep in mind that fees for officials have steadily declined in real terms over the last 35 years. The $25-per-game fee paid in 1966 would be more than $127 per game today if adjusted for the cost of living. After equipment, travel, dues and on-the-road food costs, today’s high school football official nets only a pittance for his work.
Regarding the “informal survey” of five to eight penalties called per game in the suburbs, this data is not backed up by more exhaustive actual surveys. A 64-game survey conducted between 1987-89 in the suburbs showed an average of 12.8 penalties called per game. No game had fewer than six or more than 24, of which 5.9 per game (46 percent) were procedural (encroachment, delay, false start, etc), 4.2 per game (33 percent) were aggressive-type penalties (holding, clipping, pass interference) and 2.7 per game (21 percent) were personal and unsportsmanlike fouls.
Yes, there are a lot of inexperienced football officials. The good, experienced officials are being worked in the suburbs like rented mules, but they can’t cover all the games. A quick study of the ages of current officials will tell you that this is going to get worse at an alarming rate in the coming years. This problem has been building for a long time, and any solution will require far more leadership than the IHSA and its member schools have provided to date.
