Robert "Duke" Carroll '72 and Gene Monje '64 have both managed to turn a hobby into what many would consider a dream job: they get to "run around" with some of the greatest athletes in the world. Carroll just completed his first season as an official in the National Football League, and Monje has been a referee on the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men's basketball circuit since the early 1980s.
Their first refereeing experiences sound eerily similar. "I began officiating on the high school and small fry level about 18 years ago," recalled Carroll, a defensive back for legendary Bomber mentor Jim Butterfield. "I had thought about it for a while, and then a friend who officiated encouraged me to start. I fell in love with it from the beginning."
"After completing my education at Ithaca, I moved to North Carolina to pursue my master's degree at East Carolina," said Monje, who was a three-sport athlete (baseball, basketball, and football) at the College. "While I was there a friend of mine encouraged me to answer an ad for a high school official. I did and I knew from the start it was going to be something I liked."
Carroll spent his first six years as an official in the Elmira, New York, area, then began officiating in the ECAC in the early 1980s. After five seasons of Division II and III games, he moved to the Division I-AA scene, which includes schools in the Ivy and Patriot Leagues. From there he applied to the World Football League in 1990, but as luck would have it the league folded the same year he sent his résumé to the head office. On the positive side, the WFL forwarded his application to the NFL. After five years of waiting, a full psychological evaluation, an extensive background check, and a rejection for the 1994 season after making the final cut, Carroll received a phone call last March that let him know he would be entering the NFL ranks.
Monje, who started officiating hardwood scholastic tilts in North Carolina in 1965, began his run on the collegiate level in 1972 in upstate New York. He was promoted from Division III to Division I in 1980. Monje's primary conference at the Division I level was the Big East. He also worked the conference tourney title games in the Big East (1991), Metro Atlantic Athletic (1992), and Patriot League (1992).
Monje has officiated numerous postseason NCAA and National Invitation Tournament contests, but the top moment in his career came last March. "I was selected to call one semifinal game (Arkansas vs. North Carolina) at the NCAA Division I tournament," Monje recalled. "It is without question the highlight of my officiating career. To be in the 'final four' environment was something special that I will never forget."
For his dedication and contributions as a referee in that event, Monje was selected as the 1995 winner of the Elliot Cushing Award, presented annually by the Rochester Press Radio Club to an individual who has excelled on the national sports scene. Monje received his award at the 47th Annual Day of Champions Charity Sports Dinner, held on February 5 this year.
Despite the time demands of their "hobby," the two men have other careers as well: Carroll, a business student on South Hill, is the president of MacNamara-Carroll Insurance Company, which has offices in Elmira and Corning. And for 30 years Monje has been using his physical education teaching degree at Rush-Henrietta High School in Rochester.
"[Officiating] took me out of the office less than I thought it would," Carroll explained. "For a Sunday game the NFL requires the officials to be in the city in which the game is being played by noon on Saturday. So in most cases I would work in Elmira from Monday morning until Friday afternoon and then leave for my destination on either Friday or Saturday morning."
"On an average week, I'll work about four games," said Monje. "I have to travel by plane a lot because I work in the Atlantic 10, Big East, Big Ten, Southeast, Patriot, and Metro Atlantic conferences, and that takes me to eastern and central portions of the United States. There is a group of about 40 officials in this region that do the same thing I do and we are asked to be at games about an hour and a half before the tip-off to go over things with the guys that will be calling the games with us."
Although Monje works with a different squad of referees each night out, Carroll was a back judge on the same seven-man crew for 17 weeks. The NFL has a total of 16 officiating groups (8 in the East and 8 in the West) that police contests each weekend. Carroll, whose role as a back judge was to keep pass receivers and defenders in check, was thrown in with Gary Lane's experienced crew, which had four individuals who have appeared in Super Bowls at one time or another in their careers. But since there were two rookies in the clan, including Carroll, the striped-shirt gang was kept under close watch by the head office in New York City.
"Every official gets evaluated by a representative of the NFL during each game," said Carroll. "It's these evaluations that determine how long you will survive in the NFL." Carroll received a good evaluation at midseason and at this point is expecting to be back for a second year.
With all of the athletes sprinting, jumping, and diving around them when contests are taking place, Carroll and Monje obviously feel a tremendous amount of stress.
"I guess if I had to identify the hardest thing about being an NFL official, I would have to say that we are under a lot of pressure," Carroll said. "There are 8 to 15 cameras on the game at all times, so you know that at least one of those cameras is on you. If a play is in your area, you'd better be ready to make the correct call.
"Players and coaches also get in your ear about calls that you make, especially in my rookie year," he continued. "Obviously, I'm going to make someone very happy and upset another with every call I make. If someone has a gripe at the next dead-ball situation, I will go over to the person and give him an answer. It might not be the answer they want, but at least I communicated with them and that's basically what they want."
"You have to hear the [players and coaches], but you don't always listen to them," agreed Monje. "If a play happens so quickly that I kick a call, I'll admit it, but you can only do that so many times before you start to lose your credibility."
Staying in condition is something both take very seriously as well. "The fact of the matter is that the athletes that I'm around for the most part stay between 18 and 22, and every year I get one more year older," stated Monje. "It's hard to keep up, but I do it because I enjoy being a referee."