--Previous Message--
: His name is Keith Ferguson. Our sons have
: played PONY baseball together for years.
: I've gotten some good insight on the NFL
: from Keith, and even grilled him on the
: Raiders/Patriots "Tuck Rule" game
: (which he did not work).
:
: ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
:
: San Jose football official works Super
: Bowl XLIII
: By Dick Sparrer
: Los Gatos Times Weekly
:
: The contents of the hutch that stands beside
: the kitchen table in the breakfast nook of
: Keith Ferguson's Willow Glen home tell an
: interesting story.
:
: There are the autographed footballs, an
: assortment of awards and game momentos, even
: a gold watch. But the most interesting of
: them all: a collection of bright yellow
: penalty flags.
:
: Now, for a football player, a collection of
: penalty flags would be nothing to brag
: about. But Keith Ferguson isn't a player —
: he's a National Football League official,
: and the penalty flag is the tool of his
: trade.
:
: And in his collection, there's a
: personalized one that he's particularly
: proud of.
:
: Embroidered in blue on the bright yellow
: flag is "Keith Ferguson, BJ-61, Tampa
: Bay, 02.01.09," framing a red, white,
: blue and green patch that says simply,
: "Super Bowl XLIII."
:
: It seems that Ferguson capped his ninth
: season in the NFL by realizing a dream come
: true — earning the role as back judge in the
: Feb. 1 Super Bowl when the Pittsburgh
: Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals
: 27-23 in Tampa Bay, Fla.
:
: "I was higher than a kite walking out
: there, and I was scared to death,"
: recalls Ferguson of his Super Bowl debut.
: "It's the pinnacle of all games, and I
: treated it that way."
:
: The game annually pairs the two teams that
: arguably the two best in the NFL, and it's
: the same for the officials.
:
: "You're selected by being ranked as the
: No. 1 at your position," explains
: Ferguson, who was rated
: the No. 1 back judge among NFL officials in
: 2008.
:
: So Ferguson was on the field for Super Bowl
: XLIII, and he was there in the middle of the
: field at Raymond Jones Stadium just as the
: game was about to begin.
:
: "Before the game, as back judge, you
: hand the ball to the kicker and run off to
: the side of the field," recalls
: Ferguson. "Now, I've worked big games
: before, but there's nothing that can compare
: to that.
:
: "After the kickoff, you see all the
: flash bulbs going off. It wasn't until about
: the end of the first quarter when I really
: calmed down. Until then, I was pumped up.
: After that, you just try to tell yourself
: this is just another game."
:
: Well, not exactly. It's actually become the
: single biggest sporting event in the nation
: and, according to Wikipedia, "has
: become likened to a de facto U.S."
:
: "The intensity of that ballgame was
: more than anything I've been around,"
: he says. "There's nothing you can do to
: prepare for that — nothing that can compare
: to that."
:
: Ferguson has been preparing for this game,
: though. In fact, whether he knew it or not
: at the time, he's been preparing for this
: moment for most of his life.
:
: Officiating football runs in the Ferguson
: family. His father, Dick, worked for 13
: seasons as an NFL official after a
: successful run locally as a high school
: official for many years. He was one of the
: co-founders of FERMAR, the organization that
: scheduled officials for all high school
: sports in the Santa Clara Valley for many
: years.
:
: "When I was a kid, I used to go to all
: the games with him, and I would be the ball
: boy," the younger Ferguson recalls.
: "He'd work a game, and we would go
: hunting the next day."
:
: "At the time, officiating never even
: entered by mind," he adds. "But I
: always loved sports and always wanted to be
: around it. And I just enjoyed being with my
: dad and going to a ball game."
:
: Veteran area official Chuck Camuso remembers
: a young Keith Ferguson well.
:
: "I worked with him when he was first
: breaking in," says Camuso, a teacher
: and head baseball coach at Homestead High
: School in Cupertino.
:
: "He had it in him because of his
: dad," adds Camuso. "He was a
: natural. He was a good student of the game
: and took the game seriously with intentions
: to advance."
:
: Camuso knows something about moving through
: the officiating ranks. He started working
: local high school basketball games while a
: student at San Jose State University in 1952
: and ended up spending three seasons working
: in the National Basketball Association. He
: only left the NBA because "they had
: problems scheduling me and asked me to leave
: my job."
:
: The NBA's loss has been the valley's gain
: for more than half a century. While no
: longer officiating area basketball games,
: Camuso continues to work high school
: football and will begin his 53rd season in
: 2009.
:
: Ferguson's tenure doesn't stretch back quite
: that far, but he has spent a lifetime on the
: athletic fields of the valley.
:
: Ferguson grew up locally, attending
: Blackford Elementary School, Monroe Middle
: School and Del Mar High School. He played
: football, basketball and baseball for the
: Dons and, after graduating in 1975, went on
: to play football and baseball at San Jose
: State.
:
: "I was best at football," says
: Ferguson, a center and middle linebacker for
: coaches Jim Clifton and Ron Dominguez at Del
: Mar, "but I really enjoyed
: baseball." He was a first baseman for a
: young coach Gary Cunningham, who would go on
: to a sensational coaching career at
: Bellarmine.
:
: Even before graduating from San Jose State
: in 1982, Ferguson — much like Camuso before
: him — was officiating high school football
: and basketball.
:
: It's almost like he had no choice.
:
: "I remember one day [local official]
: Tommy Achita came over with a big garbage
: bag and my dad walked out with a big box,
: and they said,`Pick out something — you're
: refing in two hours,' " he says.
:
: Ferguson learned the trade working Pop
: Warner Football and Japanese league
: basketball, and "C" and
: "D" basketball and freshman
: football at the high school level.
:
: "It took me five or six years to get my
: first varsity football game," he
: recalls.
:
: It didn't take him long to become one of the
: most respected high school football
: officials in the area.
:
: "I thought he was outstanding,"
: says Los Gatos High School football coach
: Butch Cattolico of Ferguson. "He was
: one of the few guys who would talk to
: coaches on the sidelines. He was very, very
: good, easy to work with and easy to get
: along with."
:
: "He wasn't one of those guys who always
: had to be right — he wanted to get it
: right," adds Cattolico. "He
: reminded me a lot of Bill Leavy when he came
: up."
:
: Leavy, now a 14-year NFL veteran official,
: got his start on the high school fields of
: the Santa Clara Valley and was highly
: regarded by coaches in the area.
:
: "Bill was always a step ahead of
: me," says Ferguson with a grin.
: "He's my mentor."
:
:
:
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