Time Out for Red

William Henderson ("Red") Friesell, football's most famed referee, last week spiked a rumor that he had worked his last game. In a Philadelphia hospital with a broken leg,* the 46-year-old five-footer, who is a yard-goods buyer when he is not chasing footballs, accused Eastern sportswriters of jumping the gun. "I'll be back next year," he fumed.

Red Friesell, like many another football referee, never played football at college (he broke his neck making a spectacular tackle in a prep-school game). At Princeton he was famed as Intercollegiate diving champion, football cheerleader and one of the prettiest girls in the pony ballet of the 1914-15 Triangle shows. But from the sidelines he studied football objectively, laid the groundwork of a profound pigskin knowledge. That is not the sole reason he was the most sought-after referee in the business.

Born with a flair for showmanship as conspicuous as his red hair, he chases a football like a beagle after a rabbit, always seems to dive to the bottom of the pile to get it. He believes a referee's job calls for neither a blind man nor a hawkshaw, prefers to keep the show going rather than call every infraction of football's 65 pages of rules.

Despite his conspicuous field talents, Friesell's real fame can be traced to a colossal boner. In the waning seconds of last year's Cornell-Dartmouth game (two weeks before he quit college refereeing to work pro games exclusively), Friesell allowed Cornell five downs, the last of which produced a touchdown that won the game, 7-10-3. Referees have made that mistake before. But the Cornell-Dartmouth game was crucial: Cornell had been undefeated in 18 games, was on the next-to-the-last lap of its second successive undefeated season.

After seeing movies of the game, Friesell frankly admitted his mistake. Though he could not reverse his decision (a referee's jurisdiction ends with his last whistle toot), Cornell conceded the game to Dartmouth (3-to-0) in a shining display of sportsmanship. Afterwards he actually received letters addressed merely "Fifth Downer, U.S.A."

* Brooklyn Dodger Lineman Perry Schwartz dropped his 200 Ib. on it in a recent game with the Philadelphia Eagles.

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