The first clue that Ed Hochuli isn't your everyday sports official is his size. He's built like a football player, not a football ref. He even goes by the nickname "Guns." And he impresses even the well-built NFL jocks he governs.
The second is that the Canyon del Oro High School graduate and former UTEP linebacker, who joined a group of 11 new members of the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday, hardly lives the prototypical anonymous lifestyle of a sports official.
As a head NFL referee, he's one of those guys who takes the microphone to tell the stadium and television audiences of a decision. In doing so, Hochuli often offers well-reasoned oratories worthy of the courtroom — which isn't surprising, since he's also a UA law school graduate and practicing attorney in Phoenix.
People recognize Hochuli all the time on the streets, in airports, and in the courtroom. Jury pools crumble at his sight, literally, because most of the prospective jurors who admit knowing of him must be tossed out.
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"It never ceases to amaze me, the number of people that will just come up to me and recognize me," Hochuli said. "But football's unusual — there really is no other sport where the game actually stops and the official talks to the fans. I never anticipated the (publicity) that would come with it."
Hochuli is so well-known, in fact, that he once made David Letterman's Top 10 List.
On Letterman's list of Top 10 Signs You're Watching Too Much Football, one was: "Before you make any decision, you ask yourself, What would NFL referee Ed Hochuli do?"
It was a compliment … probably.
"There's certainly some name recognition, I guess," Hochuli said. "Or maybe it was a really slow night, and they couldn't come up with anything else."
Hochuli's rise in football paralleled his law career. As a law school student in the early 1970s, Hochuli worked Pop Warner games to make a few bucks; he then progressed into high school, junior college, and the Big Sky Conference before the Pac-10 called in 1983.
Hochuli moved up to the NFL in 1990 and became a head referee in 1992. It is as a crew chief that he is particularly high profile, serving as spokesman for his crew.
Though all NFL referees are scheduled to work no more than one or two of any team's games during the season, Hochuli said fans and players alike treat him with familiarity. In fact, during a preseason game Friday night between the Jets and Buccaneers, Jets receiver Tim Dwight challenged Hochuli to a "measure off," to see who had the bigger biceps.
Fans' reactions vary depending on their point of view, Hochuli said, but they tend to stay quieter off the field.
"It's almost always positive," Hochuli said. "I think the people who are negative are at least kind enough to leave me alone and stay away. I know that there's people out there who don't like me, though. The crew chief gets blamed or praised for whatever happens."
Hochuli may be the most nationally known of Sunday's honorees who will be formally inducted Oct. 15, but all significantly impacted the local sports scene.
The other honorees are Paula Aboud, a multisport UA athlete who is now a state senator; Frank Busch, UA swimming coach; Candy Kaemerer, synchronized swimming coach of the Tucson Synchro; Bob Logan, former UA assistant football coach who is now senior development director at the UA; Bert Otero, softball coach at Desert View High School; Don Pooley, former UA and current pro golfer; Jack Rickard, former golf writer at the Tucson Citizen; Benny Rincon, former UA baseball player; and Gary Williams, general manager of the Tucson Rodeo; and the Tucson Rodeo Committee.
Busch was unable to attend Sunday's news conference and ceremony before the Sidewinders baseball game, and Hochuli said he would be working an NFL game in St. Louis for the induction.
Otero had a different conflict that prevented him from being inducted last year: A member of the Arizona Air National Guard, he served nearly two months in Qatar as a chaplain's assistant, mentoring and counseling soldiers in the Iraq war. The interruption did not bother him.
"I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Otero said. "It's the bond that you establish over there."
Making their mark
Nine other locals and the Tucson Rodeo Committee will join Ed Hochuli in the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame
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