A Story for Pat Smith

I am delighted to say that Pat is back from the hospital and from successful by-pass surgery for blocked blood-vessels to his heart.  And so now I can tell a story he had asked me about several weeks ago, just before he went into hospital.  (I couldn’t publish it before because I knew that when he looked at it, he would burst out laughing, and I couldn’t risk his busting his stitches before he had completely healed.)

In early March, Ed sent out this picture from a game on April 9th, 1977 in Dallas between the Tornado and Tampa Bay Rowdies in the North American Soccer League.  I'm sure his reason for doing so was to show how young and handsome we were in those days, but the photograph is interesting for other reasons.

At the time, Gino D'Ippolito was on the international list, I was a national referee, and Ed a state.  We all wore the same badge, the old blue USSF one that preceded the variously colored ones of the next few years.  Eventually all three of us were on the international panel, and all appeared in the Soccer Bowl in one year or another.  This was Ed's first professional match, and so he hired a photographer to record the occasion for posterity.

Shortly after Ed sent the picture out, I got a note from Pat Smith, asking about the beard.  I was about to tell him the story, but then heard the news that he was going under the knife.  So I had to wait, but here's the tale.

I was working as a geologist at the time, and occasionally had to go out into the field.  I had just returned from working on a drilling-ship off the Nile delta of Egypt, and had kept the beard for a while.  In the pre-season clinic of 1977, Eddie Pearson, Director of Officials for the NASL, had asked me about it, because it was rare to see a referee anywhere with hair on his face.  As I recall, the conversation went like this:

Hey oop, Bob, what's with this bloody beard, then?

I've been on a drill-ship, Eddie, and I let it grow while I was there...

Well, there ain't many refs with beards, lad, anywhere in't world!

I know, Eddie, but don't worry, I'll tek it off if tha wants.  I'm not emotionally attached to it!

P'raps you'd better, Bob, eh?

But then, after a moment's pause, he looked at me again and said, laughing:

No, why don't you keep it.  They may not recognize you from last year!

                                           ***

So that's the story of the beard, Pat.  Now that you're healing, you can laugh all you like!  Glad you're back!

Comments

[Gil Weber]

Bob, so very few have ever seen those old badges. I received mine in 1974 when I first registered. Actually in those days it was not USSF -- rather USSFA (United States Soccer Football Association).
Ah, yes. Those were the days. :o)