Tucson native Ed Hochuli is retiring after 28 years officiating in the NFL.
The NFL last week announced the retirement of Ed Hochuli, one of pro football’s most visible referees for the last 28 seasons, a two-time0 Super Bowl crew chief. Hochuli’s sports career began as a Green Fields Country Day School swimmer in an Oro Valley youth league in the early 1960s. He then became a football, basketball and wrestling standout at Canyon del Oro High School before playing football at UTEP and returning to Tucson to earn a law degree. He got his officiating start from a familiar source: former CDO coach Dean Metz, a Pima County Sports Hall of Fame referee, recommended the law student join him in calling some Tucson youth league football games. While in law school, Hochuli worked at the Arizona Daily Star, delivering 400 papers every morning while driving a 1959 Volkswagen, tossing those newspapers to porches and driveways around Pima County. After reaching the NFL, Hochuli became a noted weightlifter and distance runner; he ran 12 marathons.
