Local referee Ted Thompson retires after 41 years of officiating football

Collaboration, cooperation, camaraderie.

It’s the team sports that appealed to him. It’s the team aspects of sports that appealed to him.

That’s why Ted Thompson was always drawn to football. That’s why Thompson was always drawn to officiating football.

Or at least that’s part of it.

“Needless to say, I really enjoyed it,” said Thompson. “I was never much of a follower of individual sports. I liked team sports. Football is a team sport and being an official was being part of a group. I also always had an affinity for rules.”

In November, Thompson, a 69-year-old resident of the city and long-time educator, retired from his 41-year post as an official of local high school, junior high school, and youth football. It was a role that suited his personality well and an experience that enriched his life.

“It’s not that I didn’t have anything left,” he said. “I’ve seen guys hang on too long and I didn’t want to be that guy. Last year (2024) went so well, I decided to come back this year. This year (2025) didn’t go as well.”

During his five decades as an official, Thompson worked more than 1,000 gridiron contests, some playoff games, mostly Lancaster-Lebanon League varsity games and many in the now defunct Lebanon Valley Midget Football League. That’s a lot of community service. That’s a lot of giving back.

“I was at a game one time and there were some kids on the sticks (first down chains),” said Thompson, “and they asked me how long I’ve been doing it. I said, ‘Forty years.’ I remember a time when I thought 40 years old was old. I don’t know how it happened. It’s one year after another and all of a sudden, it’s 40 years.

“Any time you have competition, and someone wants to win, you need a neutral observer. When it comes down to it at the end, everyone wants to win. When I went to officiate a football game, I had no interests. I needed to remain totally neutral. Any reason I did any of this is to stay involved, to keep connected to the game. It’s just the love of sports, love of the game and wanting to be involved.”

During the majority of his football officiating career, Thompson worked as a member of a five-, six- or seven-member crew. Thompson spent the last 25 of his officiating years as a referee, after spending many of his earlier ones as a line judge.

As the guy wearing the white hat, he took his responsibilities very seriously.

“The referee is the crew chief,” said Thompson. “You give signals on penalties, and you make the final determination with certain things. In officiating, it’s so much about angles, getting together (with other crew members) and saying, ‘I had a really good view of that.’ That’s one of the things that really made me more interested in officiating football than other sports, because it’s teamwork.”

Thompson embodied all of the qualities that make up successful officiating and good officials – attention to detail, powers of observation, empathy, a sense of fairness, and thickness of skin.

“I would add common sense and the knowledge and application of the rules to that,” he said. “Or applying the rules with common sense. One of the things you get from playing any game is knowledge of that game. You need to have a feel for the game. You have to be a really strong fan of the game or have played the game.”

Thompson played football – as well as basketball and baseball – growing up, but more in a supporting capacity than in a starring role. He was 29 when a subtle shift modestly changed the direction of his life.

“It wasn’t like it was a lifelong dream,” he said. “(Fellow long-time local official) Randy Fields and I started together. We were playing in a flag football league, and we couldn’t get officials, so you had to officiate when you weren’t playing. We liked doing it, so we said, ‘Why don’t we do it for real?’ That’s how we got started.

“Am I going to miss it? There’s no doubt in my mind. I know what’s coming (when a new season starts in August). My only regret is that I wish I would’ve started earlier, because I enjoyed it so much.”

As the years passed, Thompson’s evolution as an official mirrored his evolution as a person.

“It’s been my experience, that the more you do something, the better you’re going to be at it,” he said. “I think I learned to deal with coaches better. When I was younger, there were situations when I wasn’t happy with my myself and how I dealt with coaches.”

Thompson, who taught history in the Lebanon School District for 22 years before retiring in 2019, also umpired baseball during his high school and college days and officiated PIAA basketball between 1986 and 1994. He served as a boys’ basketball coach in Lebanon – at one level or another – for 30 years.

“I guess my advice would be to get involved, because it makes you better in all aspects of your life,” Thompson said. “It makes you a better person and make your life more fulfilled. What it takes is you need to have a spouse who allows you to have that time away. When my kids were growing up, I missed some of their games. There was a sacrifice there.”

Fairly standard stuff for people who place others ahead of themselves.