Eddie Pearson Award

Pearsonian History & Information
Eddie Pearson Award Winners | Eddie Pearson Biography

Prior to 1970
The referee program was fragmented into state and local jurisdictions. The only function of the National office was the registration of referees. Registration cards were typed by Lise St. Pierre Ringer from her desk in the hallway of the office, which was located in the Empire State Building. There was an international panel of referees. The National body appointed them. The list was set in geographical terms and the appointments political. Referee training, testing, promotion and assignment were locally based and usually conducted by referee associations. They were different from area to area as was the level and intensity of the game. The number of referees registered by the National office was about 250.

1970-1975: The National Period
With the ascendancy of Don Phillipson to the chair of the Referee Committee the National program was born. Phillipson designed the basic organizational structure still in effect today. Phillipson unveiled his plan at a meeting in Valley Forge Pennsylvania in March of 1975. A small group, Phillipson, Werner Fricker, John McKeon, Eddie Pearson and Roger Schott met and hammered out the details of what was to become the National Referee Development Program. Roger Schott became the first Director of Referee Administration and Eddie Pearson the Director of Officials. The position of the State Referee Administrator was created and the all-important SRA Manual was written by Don Byron, published and distributed. The nation was broken down into four regions and Regional Instructors were appointed Harry Baldwin , Don Byron, Pat Smith, Bob Evans and Dio Cordero.

Later, a troika comprised of a National Director of Administration, National Director of Referee Instruction and National Director of Referee Assessment were conceived. Eddie Pearson assumed the Director of Instruction role. Under Pearson, who headed the North American Soccer League referee cadre, the Federation sponsored three referee instructor courses. They were held in Atlanta Georgia and in Fresno California in 1974 and in Chicago in 1975. From the 150 or so instructors trained at these sessions came the first national and state level instructors. At this stage heavy reliance was placed on the Canadian instructors Paul Avis and Peter Johnson. The Canadian Soccer Associations program was seen as advanced when compared to the Federations at that time. American instructors Bob Evans, Ed Bellion, Bob Sumpter and Pat Smith also played a key role.

Pearson, in the post of NASL Director of Officials, began a series of national training clinics for league referees and linesmen. The first of these was held in St. Louis in 1974. Meanwhile Pat Smith had assumed a similar role to Pearsons with the American Soccer League. The senior professional league, 40 years in existence at the time in 1973, chose to bring the clinics to the referees. With local assistance 50 clinics were conducted between 1970 and 1975. Pearson, also, used the traveling clinic device. Providing an area had an ASL or NASL franchise in it local referees received top-flight instruction during those days. The number of registered referees in 1971 was 1,035 and in 1974 1,659, an increase of 62%.

1974-1984: The Professional Period
The era of professional soccer development and the National era overlap as does the contemporary era and the International. Basically, the same set of actors was playing in all three.

Eddie Pearson, responding to NASL growth, decided to become a full time director. In his final clinic in Tampa in 1978, the league roster of officials had grown to over 100. The first 9 national referee instructors had been appointed. They were Don Byron, Roger Schott, Pat Smith, Angelo Bratsis, Harry Baldwin, John Davies, Bob Sumpter, George Lingard and Bob Evans. The NASL had developed a cadre of assessors from retired officials. They were Pat Smith, Hans Struffeneger, Emmett Brennan, Roger Schott, Harry Baldwin and Don Byron.

The contribution of the professional leagues to referee development during these years cannot be overestimated. Yearly clinics held from 1974 to 1984 assembled the top referees and assessors in North America for a week of testing and training.

From the early 1970s through 1979 Roger Schott was the National Referee Administrator. Don Phillipson, under the pressure of business, had to leave the chair of the Referee Committee and in the middle 1970s that post was held by Thomas Webb of Seattle, Washington.

In 1978 Eddie Pearson died a tragic death in an automobile accident in Atlanta, Georgia. In the spring, prior to his death, he hosted a meeting in New York at which the National Referee Assessment Program was designed and launched. Much of the groundwork for the system was the work of Roger Schott. The final product was accomplished through a committee of Pearson, Schott, Byron, Evans, Baldwin, Smith and Avis. Following Pearson's death, the referee program was reorganized with Don Byron taking the National Administrators role, Roger Schott, Assessment and Harry Baldwin, Instruction.

This began a period of great growth. During the tenure of Don Byron the number of registered referees grew from 2,500 to 35,000. Together with Harry Baldwin and Roger Schott. Don wrote the SRA Manual. He computerized Referee Registration process. The Referee Program was the first part of USSF to be computerized.

To honor the contribution that Eddie Pearson made to the development of referees in the United States the NASL inaugurated the Eddie Pearson Award. The league gave the award to Pat Smith, Roger Schott, Ray Morgan, Don Byron and Paul Avis. For three years, after the league went out of existence, 1984, 1985, and 1986 the award was not given. The award was reactivated by the Federation in 1987 and continues to be presented to those who have made outstanding contributions to the national referee development program.

At a Referee Committee meeting in St. Louis in March of 1979 Mr. Joseph Blatter of FIFA offered the Federation a series of FIFA sponsored instructor courses. Coca-Cola would contribute to the cost, as would the Federation. The courses had to be held prior to January 1, 1980 and the pressure to plan and implement them was intense. Assisted by FIFA Instructor, Ken Ridden of the English FA, The Federation conducted two courses during the summer of 1979, one at Elizabethtown, PA, and one at Berkeley, CA. Both were successful and since that time, countless similar courses have been held across the country. They have become an annual event at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center.

Keith Walker assumed the rains of the NASL following Pearson's untimely death in 1978. He quickly picked up the threads of the program and the NASL continued in its role as the laboratory for referee development in North America.

In 1982 Walker resigned as Director of Officials of the NASL and Harry Baldwin assumed that position which he held until the league dissolved in 1984. Roger Schott, Chairman of the Referee Committee, was appointed by Bob Sumpter of Atlanta to the post of National Director of Instruction. At the USSF Referee Committees request, he developed an Instruction Section to the SRA Manual which, most importantly, specified nationwide standards for the training required for initial certification and annual re-certification of USSF Referees at the Associate, Referee, State and National grades. The manual section also specified the training required for certification of USSF Instructors at all levels. In 1987, he also established the concept and policy for centralized annual certification of USSF National Referees, which was developed and successfully implemented by his successor, Bob Evans. Sumpter's tenure was also marked by the creation of several training volumes. parts of which are still in use.

Several developments occurred during the 1975 to 1985 years, which were important to the program. Indoor soccer became a national phenomenon and a new league called the Major Indoor Soccer League emerged as the primary sponsor of indoor soccer in the United States. The NASL had previous experience and for a number of years fielded a winter indoor soccer league. In 1983 they abandoned the effort and the MISL stood alone as the major developer of indoor officiating in the country. Dr. Joseph Machnik and Herb Silva deserve the credit for this development. During these years attempts were made to include the college and high school referees in the program. Jack McCabe became Regional and National Youth Referee Committee Chairman and was a major contributor to Regional Tournament and the assessment program. He also served on the National Referee Committee. Thomas Webb retired as Chairman of the Referee Committee and in 1985 he was succeed by Roger Schott. By this time Don Byron had successfully computerized the Referee Program. The Referee Department was the first to be computerized in the Federation. Registration forms were mailed to each registered referee and after the form and fee were returned to the Federation, registration cards and new copies of the Laws of the Game were sent out. The number of registered referees in 1974 was 1,659 and in 1986, 30,923. By 1984 we registered 307 instructors.

1985 - 1990: The International Period
In 1986 Jack McCabe assumed the leadership of the referee committee and the referee program was moved to Colorado Springs.

A series of personnel changes occurred in the 80's, which saw Don Byron, succeeded in turn by Ralph Hocking and Robert Wertz in the post of Director of Administration. Peter Aradi, Don Cresswell and then Pat Smith, too, followed Roger Schott, in his position as National Director of Assessment. Al Kleinaitis became the National Director of Instruction after the terms of Robert Evans (1887-1990) and Robert Sumpter (1984-1987).

The United States had always been a player in the world arena, having entered World Cup tournaments from the very beginning, but was considered by most to be undeveloped soccer-wise when compared to Europe and South America. With that reputation, international referee exposure was most difficult.

The Federation had been represented at four CONCACAF referee committee meetings, and in 1980 at the UEFA committee meeting for top referees at Zeist in Holland. The first full-fledged product of the referee development program, David Socha and Vincent Mauro both of Massachusetts, performed with distinction at the World Cup, Socha in 1982 and 1986, and Mauro in 1990.

Our International Panel was beginning to win acceptance in CONCACAF  and at the international tournaments throughout the world.

Since the Chairmanship of Jack McCabe beginning in 1986 the referee program has been in ascendancy in international soccer. As an active member of the CONCACAF  Referee Commission, McCabe pushed for the advancement of the Federation and its international panel in the realm of CONCACAF  and FIFA.  In March 1988, the Federation hosted its first international seminar at Colorado Springs. Since then, at each National Referee Testing Session, foreign observers have been present and the achievements of the program have been highlighted. The first National Referee Instructor Course was held in 1989 and a second in 1990.

The progress made in the first twenty years of the referee development program is unparalleled in any nation. The program stands the equal of any and the envy of many throughout the world. The number of registered instructors in 1984 - 307 in 1988 - 1,124; The number of registered assessors in 1987 855 to 1,075 in 1989.

• Back to the Hall of Famer Index