Quick Hits on Iconic Referees: Wes McCauley and Ed Hochuli

00:00:29 Speaker 1: In the old days and not the seventies or eighties, I mean way before humans harnessed electricity. Back then, there was only one way to know what was going on in your local area, or rather one person, the town crier. Medieval villagers couldn't just log onto TikTok to hear fringe conspiracy theories about the black plague or get email updates on the king's new tax regulations. Plus, even if they had access to emails, the majority of people back then couldn't read, so the burden of sharing royal decrees, market prices, local bylaws, advertisements, and other announcements fell to town criers, also called bell men, who were technically officers of the royal court or public authority. These criers wore elaborate, often bright colored clothing, a tricorn hat, and sometimes even armor. Most carried hand bells, which they would ring to get people's attention before announcements, and started off their proclamations by shouting oye oye oyea, which roughly equates to here ye hear ye, hear ye. Due to the dangerous nature of the job, like having to tell people their taxes are increasing, town criers were legally protected by the law, and attacking one was considered treason. It's one of the reasons the phrase don't kill the messenger has existed for so long. Yet not all the proclamations were dangerous, and a few criers throughout history became quite popular in their communities, like elderly Scottish crier bt Dick, who opted to begin her announcements by smacking a wooden plate with a spoon instead of ringing a bell. In modern times, town criers still exist in some parts of the world, though the majority have been replaced by social media, news organizations and bulletin boards now that most people can read. If anything, the closest current day counterparts to medieval town criers are sports referees hear me out. They have uniforms, whistles instead of bells, make announcements to big crowds of onlookers that are often unpopular and are granted their authority by a powerful organization that backs them. Most. Just like the criers, tend to stay as anonymous as possible, delivering their proclamations dryly and avoiding the spotlight at all costs. Yet there are always exceptions, which brings us to today's episode. Two referees to very different sports and two styles of officiating that turned their calls into legendary soundbites. That's right, we're diving into the stories of Wes McCauley, the NHL ref who turned hockey calls into unforgettable drama, and Ed Hoculey, the NFL ref who made rulings sound like law school lectures delivered by a bodybuilder. So sit back, relax, and let's get into today's episode of Sports Dot MP three. Born in Ontario, Canada, Wes McCauley always aspired to spend his career skating on the ice and NHL arenas. There's no doubt that his father, John McCauley, was its significant influence on those dreams, as he was a referee for the National Hockey League from nineteen sixty six to nineteen eighty one. It seems like he would have refereed for much longer if not for a severe right eye injury he suffered in nineteen seventy nine that permanently damaged his depth perception when a fan attacked him after refereeing a game between the NHL All Stars and Soviet Union. Despite the injury, John stayed around the NHL and eventually became the director of officiating in nineteen eighty six. Bearing that in mind, it should come as no surprise that West turned out to be a pretty good hockey player. He eventually attended Michigan State University, playing as a defenseman all four years and even co captaining the team his senior season. He was drafted by the Chicago Red Wings in the eighth round of the nineteen ninety NHL Entry Draft and bounced around several minor league hockey teams for the next few years before injuries forced him to retire in nineteen ninety seven. He quickly shifted his focus towards becoming a referee, just like his father, who sadly passed away in nineteen eighty nine due to complications following an emergency surgery. Wes's journey to the top of the refereeing ladder was a fast one, and by two thousand and five, he found himself living out his childhood dream of skating on the ice and NHL arenas as a full time job, just as the guy in white and black stripes instead of as a player. McCauley's first decade as a referee went fairly under the radar, which is typically a good thing for refs. That began to change around twenty sixteen, when Wes gave the hockey world a glimpse of his flare for the dramatic. In the world of live sports, there aren't many moments more exciting than watching the home teams score a goal in a hockey game. Wall in the arena, the puck heads towards the net, there's a half second pause of silent anti anticipation, followed by a loud horn confirming the goal, and then chaos. The feeling of pure adrenaline and joy shoots through the arena in an instant unless the goal has to be reviewed. That whiplash of celebrating a goal and suddenly realizing it might not count absolutely sucks, especially those agonizing minutes waiting for the referee crew to make a decision on if the goal counts or not. And when that decision does come, it's always in the form of a pedantic monotone, a motionless voice emanating from one of those nameless, faceless referees. For whatever reason, maybe because he was a ten year veteran of the league at that point and not just some young upstart In the third period of a Monday night game on March twenty eighth, twenty sixteen, between the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks, Wes McAuley delivered one of the more memorable goal calls in NHL history. I would set him down a path of popularity rarely reached by referees. The home team, Sharks, scored a goal to put them up four to two, basically securing the win, and the crowd was celebrating like it. The goal was immediately placed under review by the NHL's situation room, as there was a chance that a player on the Sharks had kicked the puck into the goal, which would disallow it. After a few painstaking minutes, Wes McCauley turned on his mic and added a touch of drama to the delivery, instantly winning over the crowd. Here's the announcement after reviewing the play. The call on the ice stands. If you're thinking the call wasn't that dramatic, you really have to listen to some typical referee calls because they're really boring. Plus, hockey referees announced penalties way less often than sports like footballing The funny announcement standout even more. Within a day of the game, McCauley's goal call was dubbed an all time classic by hockey fans and spread throughout the sports world, turning Wes into somewhat of a cult hero as the clip went viral. It was also somewhat of a turning point in his career, like the part in a cheesy underdog movie where the main character truly embraces who they are and then a montage with upbeat music plays of the character succeeding. For Wes, it would be him embracing his personality and flair for the dramatic, and the montage would be a series of hilarious viral soundbites. About a year after this iconic call, while officiating a game on February twelve, twenty seventeen, between the Montreal Canadians and the Boston Bruins, Wes had to announce a major penalty for fighting. So he tapped into the deepest depths of his magic reservoirs and conjured up his most famous one yet boughted Love Guys five minute for fighting. You might think the NHL wouldn't want one of its rule enforcers to appear as anything other than an unbiased, unemotional spokesperson, but the league has never stopped him from making these trademark calls, even when officiating several Stanley Cup finals. If we're being honest, it's hard to overestimate how much leniency is afforded to McCauley simply because the players actually like him. While he became a fan favorite after injecting his personality in two calls, a number of haters have risen from the ranks of adoring supporters to make claims that he's selfish, egotistical, and making the game too much about himself over the past several years. To be quite frank, the existence of a referee truly loved by all fans will always be an impossibility, but a referee loved by all players is a possibility, one that wes McCauley almost fully in bodies. According to the the past few years of data from anonymous NHL player polls, beccaulay is undoubtedly the most popular referee among players. During these yearly polls, the players are asked who their favorite referee is, and he tends to get about fifty percent of the total votes, with second place garnering under twenty percent. So whether you love him or hate him, the players love him, so it seems like he's not going anywhere soon. Ed Hoculey was born on Christmas Day, nineteen fifty in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second of six children. He stood out in high school as a four sport athlete, later attending the University of Texas at El Paso, where he played four years as a lineback decker and earned a Bachelor of Arts with honors when he graduated in nineteen seventy two. Just as Wes McCauley followed his father's footsteps, Hoculee did the same, except his father wasn't a referee, though his occupation was one of the few that could compare to the amount of hate referees receive. And that's because Walter hocule worked in law as a wills and a state planner. That influenced Ed to pursue a career as a lawyer. So he worked as a law clerk while earning his jd from the University of Arizona Law School, and upon graduating, worked as a trial lawyer before then becoming a partner at Jones, Skeleton and Hoculee PLC since nineteen eighty three. Throughout his pursuit of a legal career, Edward never lost his love for sports. As a law student, he started refereeing Pop Warner football games and umpiring Little League baseball games to earn extra income. By nineteen seventy three, he had decided to focus solely on football and officiated high school games around the Tucson area until nineteen eighty five. In the early eighties, when he wasn't working as a lawyer or officiating high school football games, you would hope he was sleeping. Instead, he was officiating college football games as a line judge. If you feel inadequate about doing enough after hearing that, join the club. In nineteen ninety, Hokkulee was hired by the NFL as a back judge, and just like Wes McCauley, it didn't take long for him to rise up the ranks. By nineteen ninety two, he was promoted to a full time referee, a position he would occupy until he retired nearly three decades later in twenty eighteen. If Wes rose to officiating fame for his entertainment value, Hokkulee rose to officiating fame for his explanation value. As a practicing lawyer, Hakuley was the perfect person equipped to not only understand dan the NFL rule book, which has more rules and regulations than an average legal contract, but also translate its confusing jargon and over complicated rulings into comprehensible sentences that fans could actually understand. Standing at six foot two and weighing two hundred and thirty pounds, Heculee first became somewhat well known in the NFL because he looked like he could throw on a helmet, bull rush the offensive line, and knock a quarterback out clean, earning him nicknames like Hercules Hoculee, and ed the Head. But it was his clear, transparent and comprehensive explanations of on field rulings that truly elevated him to celebrity status in the refereeing world. He unleashed one of these textbook explanations that have since been appropriately coined as Hoculee ted Talks or lessons from Heculee University. On the prior play, my flag was being returned to me. It was tossed back to me, hit the ground. When that happened. The clock operator thought there was a penalty, has stopped the clock. The clock should have continued to run. There should be twelve seconds taken off the clock, so it should be one four take the point clock down twelve seconds as well. In a world where most referees would simply say there was no foul on the play fourth down, his sincere breakdowns stood out, and clips of his calls slowly and steadily made their way into sports blogs and onto YouTube as examples of the right way to officiate games. McCauley acted as an entertainer, injecting drama into a sport desperately in need of it, while acule acted as a professor, translating these complex rules into easy to understand on field explanations. Yet his immense popularity is not just due to his lawyer like breakdowns, it's also because of his authenticit Listening to him speak, it's clear that he genuinely wants everyone listening to understand the reasoning behind the calls. This genuine nature, this desire to make sure everyone is on the same page, has also produced some hilarious sound bites. One of the funniest occurred in the second quarter of a two thousand and seven game between the Chargers and Patriots. With New England up seventeen to nothing, the Chargers ran the ball on first down and gained a couple of yards, but a flag was thrown, indicating a potential holding call against a Chargers player. Aculee and his officiating crew huddled for a few seconds after the play and determined that there actually was not a hold. When Ed explained the reasoning for the no call to the crowd, he inadvertently and absolutely roasted the Patriots defender in the process. There was no avowal on the play was not a hole. The defender was just overpowered. After the announcement, the camera immediately hands to the face of a bewildered Bill Belichick, and if you're making that guy show emotions, you're clearly doing something worthwhile. I can't finish this episode without mentioning the last category that viral Hecule soundbites fall under the category of over explaining. Having created so many clear quick breakdowns, it's understandable that on occasion he got a little too wordy or excited, with my personal favorite example coming during a game between Washington and the New York Giants when hecule starts to stumble over his words. Legendary announcer John Madden can't help but drop a reminder to those listening that Heculey is in fact a lawyer. Train the SoundBite into an iconic audio clip. There were two files by the defense offense that correctly, I'm sorry, he's a lawyers that penalty is declined. There's also personal file face mask that penalties in force. Half to goal first down Referees are delta difficult hand. They have to enforce the rules of the game, no matter how ridiculous, arbitrary, or ambiguous they might be. They have to deal with screaming fans, players and coaches, make half second decisions that can make or break a team's entire season or a player's legacy, and have to remain as unbiased as possible no matter the scenario. According to some, the ideal referee is the one you don't remember, which makes the popularity of refs like Wes McCauley and Ed Hoculey so fascinating, especially given the lack of similarity between their refereeing styles. If you bring it all the way back to the town criers, the concept makes a little more sense. The best town criers and referees alike have one thing in common, a firm grasp of their place in the world. Think about a town crier that has to announce new tax regulations on merchants. A bad one might try to make the announcement funny, while a good one, one who knows that he's carrying a message that won't be taken well by the people he's announcing it to, would probably elect to take the Hecule approach and break down the new tax regulations as clearly as possible. Heculey and McCauley both had a keen understanding of not just the rule book, but how to best use their role as a referee to elevate their sport as best they could. For McCauley, that was leaning into the emotions and drama, and for Hocule, that was making everything make sense. The two are prime examples of how you can achieve greatness by embracing who you are, whether that's as an entertainer or a law professor. And that does it. For today's Quick Hits episode of Sports Dot MP three, Thank you so much for listening. Please follow us on ig TikTok and x at sports underscore MP three and subscribe to our YouTube channel at Sports mp three. I'll be back Thursday with a new episode. See you next week. Peace did Last