Tucson’s legacy in sports officiating is as impressive as any city, per capita, in America. It has produced Super Bowl and Final Four referees, world championship boxing referees, Olympic Games officials, Major League Baseball and College World Series umpires.
But when Jim Fogltance retired from a distinguished 54-year career in Tucson prep and Pac-12 football officiating last week, he warned that “we’re lacking young officials; we’ve got lots of good officials in Tucson, but we need younger guys, the next generation.”
Getting enough qualified referees and officials for all levels of all sports — high school varsity, junior varsity, freshman — is not just a Tucson issue, it’s a national issue.
I bring this to your attention because UA track coach Fred Harvey has scheduled a dinner for prospective NCAA track and field officials Friday at Drachman Stadium from 4-6 p.m. Why the fuss? Because it takes between 30 to 35 certified officials to conduct a Pac-12 track meet,
“We’re trying to build our officials association,” Harvey said. “And not just for us, but hopefully for the Tucson high schools, middle schools and junior colleges.”
Fortunately for Harvey, when the Wildcats stage their annual Red, White and Blue intrasquad competition Saturday, they will have just the man needed to coordinate officiating for 36 men’s and women’s events.
That would be Edward “Nippy” Feldhake III, who is one of those people about whom you wind up saying, “How did we ever do this without Nippy?”
Feldhake, a retired Arizona Department of Transportation engineer, became the UA’s coordinator of track and field officials in 2019, replacing the esteemed Dan Reynolds, one of America’s leading figures in high school, college, NCAA and Olympics Trials officiating.
Reynolds, a Pima County Sports Hall of Famer, was so reliable and so effective for so long that it didn’t seem possible Harvey could find a suitable replacement. To Harvey’s good fortune, Feldhake — a decades-long cycling enthusiast and event manager — has been just that.
His reputation for getting things done is global.
Since 1984, Feldhake has worked as a volunteer at 15 Olympic Games in seemingly every capacity possible. At the just-completed Tokyo Olympics, Feldhake was assistant Chef de Mission for the Australian Olympic team. At the ‘96 Atlanta Olympics, Feldhake was foreman of a crew that built the Olympic village. At the ‘04 Athens Olympics, he was stationed on the field during the opening ceremonies, distributing water to athletes and coaches.
Feldhake is a gold medal-level Olympics utilityman, although to be accurate he did not win a medal when he competed in cycling for America Samoa at the ‘92 Barcelona Olympics. He did, however, carry the Olympic Torch through downtown Tucson in 2002, helping to help relay the torch to Salt Lake City.
How’s that for a resume of helping others?
“Nippy’s personality is such that he is right for this job,” says Harvey, who first met Feldhake at the ‘92 Olympics. “It’s a real labor of love for him.”
This effort to rebuild the Southern Arizona officiating system isn’t anything new for Feldhake. He was in charge when Arizona staged the 2019 Pac-12 Track and Field Championships at Drachman Stadium.
“We had more than 100 officials working that event,” Feldhake says, “It was amazing. We pulled 30 officials from out of state. We won’t be able to do that for our regular season competitions, and when you need 35 officials it gives you very little room if someone cannot be there.”
All of the high-profile sports — baseball, football and basketball — are now heavily invested in analytics. Track and field? Feldhake has his own set of analytics for Arizona officials.
“Most of our officials were involved as an athlete or coach, in high school or college track,” he says. “But from our officiating pool, 71% are over 60. In fact, 85% of our officials are between 55 and 90. Yes, 90. That means only 15% of our officials are under 55.”
Hence, Friday’s dinner.
Feldhake isn’t doing this recruiting job alone. Longtime UA jumps coach Bob Myers has made a big push with ex-UA athletes to get involved. So has UA track and field director of operations Heather Frushour.
“The difficulty in getting younger people into officiating is the demand on their time,” says Harvey. “You need some flexibility in your schedule. Younger people with families just don’t have that time.”
A college track meet requires starters for sprints and distance events. It requires electronic timers. It needs rules officials. It needs monitors and others to measure discus and javelin areas. If a record is set, it will not be confirmed unless the meet has three certified officials. Someone’s got to shoot a blank from the pistol to start races.
Officiating a college track meet is unlike a high school track meet, which has a pool of teachers and coaching staff volunteers to man each post. Not only is Feldhake responsible for competition at Drachman Stadium, but he is also the coordinator of officials for NAU’s indoor track and outdoor cross country seasons.
Talk about a pair of big jobs: NAU is a national power in track and cross country.
“One reason Arizona gets so many out-of-state teams to participate in the Jim Click Shootout, the Willie Williams Classic and the Tucson Elite Classic every year is that we’ve been successful in getting a certified staff of officials,” said Feldhake. “Many out of state teams haven’t been able to match us. Our staff enables us to measure throwing events with lasers and put the results online almost immediately. Fred wants to keep that high quality reputation.”
Feldhake, who grew up in the small town of Kearny in Pinal County, began his track career by accident. He had a paper route, but when his bicycle broke, he ran from house to house, tossing newspapers on each porch.
From there he became a high school distance runner and now, 50 years later, he goes the distance to ensure the success of Arizona’s track and field program.
