Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 25, 1993 TAG: 9311260116
SECTION: HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS PAGE: W-9 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: By BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Anyone who knows broadcasting realizes radio programs don't go on the air early.
Carroll was preparing for his broadcast when he noticed the officials and captains getting ready for the coin toss at 7:53 p.m.
That was seven minutes before Carroll was supposed to go on the air. Four minutes later, there was a kickoff but no broadcast.
Only one official could have started a game that quickly. Jim Haupt is the fastest draw in the Western Virginia Football Officials Association.
Haupt has been calling football games for 38 years. Only George Saul, with 41 years of experience, has been officiating high school football in Timesland longer than Haupt.
Haupt is the oldest in point of service in the Western Virginia Basketball Officials Association and the Western Virginia Baseball/Softball Umpires Association. He spits out the correct rulings and calls like a computer, gaining the confidence of coaches, players and fans alike.
"There's only one person who's been accused of running a game quicker than myself, and that's [retired college and high school official] Harry Bushkar," Haupt said. "My philosophy is that kids are out there to enjoy a football game and not be thinking about what happened on the play before. If we don't give kids enjoyment, we might as well quit the game."
Ernie Bradd, the WVFOA commissioner has seen Haupt in action.
"Jim could get a game over with pretty quick," Bradd said. "He and [another official] Herb Snyder dropped me off at Hillsville to work a baseball game. They went on to Galax to work their game and when they came back [about 20 miles] to pick me up, we were still in the fifth inning."
"Most of the time, Jim's back home eating a snack when I'm taking a shower," says Doug Beatty, a longtime official. "In all fairness to him, he's one of the outstanding officials we have."
How it began
Haupt got into officiating almost by accident when he was in the Army in West Germany in 1954.
"I played all the sports," Haupt said. "That day I was walking about headquarters and the commanding officer, who was also in charge of the sports programs, said he needed someone to referee football the next week. I told him I didn't know anything about being a referee, but he thought I knew enough so that I could become an official."
The officer took Haupt to the supply store and got him his first referee's uniform. When Haupt returned to Roanoke, he went to Pinky Spruin, then the head of high school officials in the area, and started calling games. Since then, Haupt has worked under six commissioners including Bushkar, who headed the WVBOA just before Bradd took over.
The stories about Haupt are the stuff of legend. The most widely circulated tale involves his escape in a peanut truck with a coach chasing him one afternoon after a Ferrum College football game.
"That has to be the greatest story," said Tom Berry, who is one of Haupt's favorite partners on the basketball court.
"It's almost like a fairy tale," said Beatty, who is, outside of Haupt, the man most familiar with the story.
"It was a team out of Alabama, and whatever happened came on the last play of the game," Beatty said. "Evidently, the coach from Alabama had been complaining throughout the game and he got the feeling he was being had by local officials.
"Jim made some type of call on the game-ending play and as [time expired] that coach made a mad dash for Jim. Not wanting a confrontation, Jim started running. The coach was ready to grab Jim when he made a hard right turn. The coach went sliding across the field on his fanny."
Haupt thought the next best avenue was to jump into a peanut truck to take him to the dressing room, which was a considerable distance from the field at Ferrum.
"As I understand, when Jim got back to the dressing room, that coach had beaten him there and got hold of his clothes," Beatty said.
"That was the most horrifying experience I've had," Haupt said. "And I wasn't even the one who made the [controversial] call, but I was the man in the white hat [the referee], so after the game I was the one the coach came after.
"He was waiting for me in the dressing room, so I told one of the other officials to pack my bag and meet me at a little convenience store between Ferrum and Rocky Mount.">
Devoted to his job
Of course, Haupt doesn't usually receive such treatment. He is a respected official who is very serious about his work.
Haupt, 59, retired from Norfolk-Southern's marketing department on Oct. 1, after working for the railroad for 47 years. A divorced father of five, Haupt spends his days sprucing up his house and preparing to officiate games. In the fall, he calls girls' basketball and football.
"There are some little things that each official does special," Haupt said.
His trademark is giving a lot of motion whenever he signals that a football team has picked up a first down.
"I just throw that left arm out and put my body into it," he said. "If you don't put your body into it, you get a crick in your neck or back."
Haupt's only concession to age was giving up calling softball games.
"I'll go until my body tells me to stop," he said. "I try to keep myself in good physical shape. . . . "I can say that in 40 years I've been officiating, the only time I've had an ache or a pain is when I came back from service. I was playing independent softball and broke my ankle. So I quit playing softball and devoted my time to my job and officiating."
And more tales to tell
The escape in the peanut truck and the quick football games are only part of Haupt's mystique.
"We'd ride in that old Volkswagen of his; it was a Beetle," Bradd said. "It only ran on half a cylinder, so it would go 10 mph up a hill and 60 mph downhill. We'd go to Patrick County and it would take an hour, 45 minutes to get there. We always made it in that Beetle. Nowadays he drives a Cadillac."
Berry remembers working a Tunstall-Martinsville basketball game with Haupt.
"You know `Wild' Bill Oakes [basketball coach] at Tunstall," Berry said. "We both had a foul in an area where both officials can make the call. We both made the call, but we both lost the number.
"The scoring table didn't have the number. We asked the Tunstall captain and he wouldn't tell us the number. So I said, `I'm going to pick out a number,' and the captain told us."
Haupt told Oakes how the officials found the guilty party. Then he went to Berry and said, " `Wild' Bill wants to see you."
Berry informed Oakes that the player had told Haupt who committed the foul, and the Tunstall coach replied, "You know, that kid's been known to lie."
Dick Ioffreda, another local official, was watching a Cave Spring-Franklin County basketball game Haupt was working.
"A guy from Franklin County steals the ball, made a shot and was fouled," Ioffreda said. "Jim had tripped over his feet when he turned. He did a complete somersault, landed on his feet, called the shot good and whistled a foul. He never missed a beat."
Because he likes it
Haupt says he officiates because he likes to work with youngsters. He called sandlot football games for 32 years. He's officiating games for players whose fathers played in games he worked.
"I intend to referee for a third generation, if my body holds up," he said. "I wouldn't say officiating is my life, because I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do as many games as I've been doing. Anyway, I do them for enjoyment and not to fill a void."
Haupt said he never watches games he's not officiating and he doesn't criticize fellow officials.
He knows the oldest axiom in officiating is "that you have to start out being perfect and still improve."
Memo: NOTE: Also ran in Current December 2, 1993.