The officials who made the long run

      Not sure if the referee's name was spoken during the telecast of last Saturday's Mississippi State-at-Louisiana Tech football game, but it was flashed on the screen once.

Ken Antee conducting the pregame coin toss for the Mississippi State
at Louisiana Tech game Sept. 9. (photo by Kelly Price, Miss. State)

      Probably he's fine with not much attention. That is the way it is with most game officials, any sport.
      Ken Antee, though, is a familiar face in Conference USA football, and to people in Shreveport-Bossier. And with the traveling he does each fall, calling a game as close to home as Ruston is a plus.
        Like most of us, he saw a once-in-a-lifetime play Saturday -- Tech's astounding 87-yard loss, from second-and-goal at the Mississippi State 6 to third-and-goal (93 yards to go) from the Tech 7.
        He got a close-up view: He had to chase after the bouncing, bouncing, bouncing ball and the players trying to scoop it up or fall on it.
        "One of the strangest things I've seen in 18 years [of college football officiating]," he said a couple of days later.
        It was one of several length-of-the-field plays for the teams -- and the officials -- in a strange game. But Antee, at age 55, was in good enough shape to make those runs, although he admitted his legs are still sore.
         And he still loves being in the game. It is as good as being an attorney, which he's been for 27 years. It might be  better than being Shreveport's chief administrative officer, which he was for eight years (1998-2006) under mayor Keith Hightower.
         "Was is the key word," he said, laughing. Because that job had as much you-can't-please-everyone or you-can't-please-anyone aspect as, well, officiating.
         The object here is not to discuss Antee's abilities or judgment as a football official -- we'll leave that to the various Internet soundoff boards -- but to point out that he is just one  the prominent college/pro game officials, past and present,  with Shreveport-Bossier ties.
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         Let's start with baseball. 
         -- The late Alaric Smith of Bossier City called pro ball for some 15 years, the last five in the majors, and worked two All-Star Games (1961, 1963) and one World Series (1964, Yankees-Cardinals). 
         -- His longtime officiating pal in area basketball and more so in the Texas League in the late 1940s through most of the 1950s was Kurcy Paul Arceneaux, big "Frenchy," a TL legend who became a Shreveport resident and died much too soon (at age 48 in 1971). 
         College basketball:
        --  Robert "Tony" Rhodes, head football coach at Huntington High School for 18 years (from the school's opening in 1973 to 1990), officiated for 32 years and was one of the officials in the 1980 NCAA men's Final Four in Indianapolis.
        -- Mike Thibodeaux recently retired as an official after 36 years, 27 in the SEC, and 14 NCAA Tournaments. He remains involved in athletics as assigning secretary for high school football and baseball in Northwest Louisiana.
        In college football, Bobby Aillet was among the most respected longtime referees in the SEC and called some of the biggest games nationally. So did the late Paul Sprayberry as a field judge.
        More recently, Bobby Aillet Jr. (now living in Monroe) was involved in football officiating for 43 years (19 as a field judge in the SEC), Paul Labenne had 42 years in the game and David Lovell had 16.
        More details in a moment. There are others, and we'll get to some of them. 
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         Aillet is a name with a deep Louisiana Tech association, the football stadium and original football complex named for the longtime athletic director/head coach. Joe Aillet was known to some as "The Smooth Man," and Bobby -- the son and his mid-1940s quarterback -- is much like his father.

Bob Aillet directing traffic at the 1986 Orange Bowl coin toss.
(photo taken from a YouTube video) 

         As a football referee, and in life, he was (and is at age 89) known for his calm, soft-spoken demeanor, and keen intellect. Few had better knowledge of the game's rules and a gentle manner with those who coached and played it.
         In business, he was a civil engineer, a partner in a long-standing, successful company in Shreveport. But during the fall for 36 years, he was Mr. Referee.
         In the first decade (1956-65), he worked high school football -- including four state championship games -- and in the all-Louisiana Gulf States Conference. He was an SEC official from 1962 through 1986, the chief of officials in 1978-82, and an observer for three more years after leaving the field. 
         The sum was 450 total games, 276 in the SEC, and eight bowl games -- and the highlight was the 1986 Orange Bowl, a national-championship victory for the 1985 Oklahoma Sooners over Penn State.

Bob Aillet in Shreveport a year ago
with a significant player who was on the field
in some games he refereed: 1982 Heisman
Trophy winner Herschel Walker (Georgia)
(The Shreveport Times photo)

         The other bottom line was a great deal of respect -- by him for the game, by those in the game for him as the referee.
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        Paul Sprayberry, who died in October 1992, was an All-SEC end for Georgia Tech in 1939 and graduated two years later. He officiated, mostly as a line judge, is 250 SEC games and 16 bowl games. 
        Significantly, he was on the crew for one of the most memorable -- and painful -- losses in LSU football history: the 14-13 game at Tennessee in 1959, ending the Tigers' hopes for a second consecutive national championship. It was the week after the Billy Cannon Halloween-night punt return against Ole Miss, and it was Cannon coming up short on the critical late-game try for the winning PAT run.
        Sprayberry, who kept officiating after the loss of one arm in an accident, also helped call the Sugar Bowl game (Alabama-Nebraska) at the end of the 1966 season, one of the national championship years for Alabama and coach Bear Bryant. The Bama QB: Ken Stabler; the All-America wide receiver: Ray Perkins.
        In Shreveport, he was a division personnel manager for Southern Bell, retiring in 1981.
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        Paul Labenne was a three-sport athlete at Fair Park High in the late 1950s and a standout football running back/defensive back/kick returner and baseball shortstop at Louisiana Tech. 
        He began officiating high school games in Shreveport in the early 1970s, then moved into college football in the Southland Conference and later the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conferences -- first as a back judge, one year as a line judge, then as a referee, and he finished his involvement as a replay official (including a memorable, mixed-up 20-25 minutes one day in a 2011 game at Louisiana Tech). Don't have enough space or time or desire to go into that.
        He refereed one NFL game -- season opener 2001, Tampa Bay at Dallas -- as a replacement, with the regular officials on strike.
        David Lovell, as a back judge and then line judge, was part of Labenne's crew for years and was in six bowl games. Together they worked an NCAA Division I-AA national championship game in the early 1990s, Marshall vs. Youngstown State. The opposing coaches, Jim Donnan and Jim Tressel, would become well-known after moving on to bigger jobs.
        Labenne worked as an insurance agent, as did Lovell, who later became involved in the oil and gas business.       
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        Bobby Aillet Jr. also was in the crew for the Marshall-Youngstown State title game. A high school official for 20 years (through 1991), he was a college official from 1983 to 2011, plus four years as a replay booth official. 
        His postseason resume' is impressive, too: 13 games, including three SEC Championships, two Rose Bowls and two Fiesta Bowls.
        Retired from 38 years as a supervisor at a Monroe papermill, he is in his seventh year as the assigning secretary for high school games in Northeast Louisiana.
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        Before integration in athletics in North Louisiana and even afterward, several Shreveport- and Bossier-based officials -- some of them coaches and school administrators -- worked in the all-black Southwestern Athletic Conference: among them, Nolan Thomas and Riley Stewart, Gerald Kimble, John Crockett, Carl Pierson and Henry Pinkney. 
        Thomas, a veteran referee, also was a steady presence in Northwest Louisiana high school games.
        Here is a current name to note: Adam Savoie grew up in Shreveport -- the Cajun restaurant/catering business on East 70th Street is his family's -- and he's an umpire in the American Athletic Conference. What's more, he is among 30 officials taking part in the NFL Officials Development Program this year.        
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        Ken Antee, who is from Buckeye, La. -- 15 1/2 miles east of Alexandria -- and graduated from then-Northeast Louisiana University, was into his law career when he came to Shreveport in 1988. 
         Seeing an ad in the newspaper for prospective high school football officials, he reported for a meeting in Bossier City -- and he was on the field for much of the 1989 season, after a brief time in the usual starting role of clock operator. 
         He worked high school games for 11 years, Arena II games for a long spell, 11 years in Conference USA as a line judge and the last seven as a referee. 
         Plus, he served the city in an official role and the Independence Bowl in a variety of ways, including game chairman one year. 
          As an attorney, he has no problem explaining (debating) game situations with coaches. As an official, he knows better than to pay attention to fans' complaints, in person or online. 
          If his schedule has no postponements -- and a game in south Florida this weekend is iffy -- he will reach his 200th Division I game at the end of this season.
          And we know this: If he has to run 70-80-90 yards once or twice or more per game, he can do it. We've seen it. 
         (Next: Basketball's striped shirts)