March 25, 2006
Hall of Fame to induct Kearney referee
From today's Kearney (Nebraska) Daily Hub:
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Hall of Fame to induct Kearney referee
By BUCK MAHONEY, Hub Sports Editor
KEARNEY (25 March 2006)—"Longevity," Vern Plambeck says, "has meant a lot to me."
His longevity has meant a lot to others, as well.
Plambeck, who started wearing the referees' stripes and blowing the whistle in 1954, and is still at it, will be inducted into the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame at its Sept. 24 induction ceremony at the Lied Center in Lincoln.
"This is a big thrill for me," Plambeck said of his induction. "I feel very fortunate just because there have been so very few (referees) in there."
But few have had a career that rivals Plambeck's.
A retired professor at UNK, he started officiating when he was a student at Hastings College, studying to be a sports writer. A couple Hastings businessmen who needed another man on their football crew approached him. His first game was at Doniphan; now, though, he doesn't remember the other team.
"I told myself when I was 20 years old that I had to be involved in athletics. Many times I would go out and work a game and come back and write a bylined story for the Hastings Tribune," he said.
But he learned that he didn't like the hours, working at the paper well into the nights after the games.
He took a teaching job at Fairbury and tried coaching. But that wasn't for him, either.
Except for a call to active duty in the military in 1957, he kept officiating.
"I like to be on the field. I feel on Friday night, that's where I belong," Plambeck said.
He officiated seven state basketball tournaments, including the 1973 Class A boys championship game. He's worked 33 football playoff games since 1976, including Nebraska's first overtime game—Wheatland 38, Hampton 32 in 1976.
He's refereed the Coaches Association All-Star Basketball and Shrine Bowl All-Star Football games.
He's even worked one of the few 9-man games in Nebraska, an experimental game between Ruskin and Dannebrog—an experiment that didn't catch on.
He's reffed games everywhere from Scottsbluff to Humboldt, from Norfolk and Springview to the Kansas border.
"I've had some big games, but not as many as you might think," Plambeck said. "I haven't had that lustrous of a career. But, I've kept going. I have enough friends hiring me to keep me going."
He gave up basketball in 1989, and has since worked as an observer of officials for the Nebraska School Activities Association.
But he's still on the field in football season.
"I wanted to work six decades, and that would have been in 2000," Plambeck said. "Then I wanted to work 50 years, and that was 2004."
He saw an article about an official in Kansas who worked for 50 years.
"He was 75 and I'm 70," Plambeck said.
He is contracted to work games this fall and next fall, too.
"And I don't know if I'll quit then. I feel good. I really do. My legs feel better. I do more now, and I'm always walking," Plambeck said.
But his long career has given him respect for many other nameless officials who have worked countless games. He watches officials, like Joe Wells of Grand Island, with admiration for their longevity and activity—referees who work three, four or five nights a week.
"I have to speak for all of them who had better schedules and maintained them better than I have. I have to speak for the group," Plambeck said of his induction ceremony speech. "They've had state tournaments since 1911, and who were those guys who did those tournaments? Who's the Joe Wells of the 1920s? Who's going to nominate them? There are so many out there who never had the chance to get the recognition I'm getting."
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