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Longtime Referee Has Earned His Stripes

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By SCOTT PURKS Tribune correspondent

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 26, 2008

TAMPA - Clem Brooks looks perfect in his uniform, and perfectly happy in it.

The black-and-white striped shirt. The white pants. The shiny black shoes and belt.

The white cap.

"When you look up before a game and see Clem in the white cap, you know you're in good hands that night," Robinson football coach Mike DePue said. "You know you're going to have a good time because Clem keeps it professional, and always fun."

The amazing thing is, Brooks has done it that way for 41 years, officiating an average of 300 games - football, basketball and baseball - in each of those years.

This year, he said, will be his last.

"It's time to look in another direction," he said. "Time to devote more time to my church."

His decision, he said, has nothing to do with him being 74 years old.

"Shoot, no," he said. "I can still run up and down the fields and the courts with the kids, and I can still see things just fine. No sir, getting older has nothing to do with it at all. It's just that I feel it's time to give something back in a different way."

Brooks grinned and, with an ever-present sparkle in his eye, appeared to be as happy in that moment as he had ever been in his life, which, DePue said, is the way Brooks is with everybody, every time.

DePue should know. For most of the 1990s, DePue worked as an umpire with Brooks on baseball games.

"I've seen how Clem works on both sides of the ball, and I can tell you he is as fair and genuine as a person can get," DePue said. "He has never, ever played favorites. Heck, he's thrown a flag or two on me. ... He always said, 'No one is bigger than the game,' and he's always stuck to it. ... I learned a lot from Clem. Lots of people have learned a lot from Clem."

Things have changed a bit under Brooks, who for the past 10 years has served as president of the West Coast Officials Association, helping more officials cover more big games, such as state championships.

"There used to be a lot more politics involved in choosing who got the bigger games," Brooks said. "I tried to make it where guys were chosen more on effort and performance."

On his officiating resume, Brooks has several state championships in baseball, basketball and football. It's a resume that started adding up after a 23-year career in the Air Force, where, yes, he officiated games.

"It all started when I was a very young man hanging out in a gym and somebody said, 'Hey, you want to officiate a game?'" Brooks said. "I said sure, and you know what? I loved it right away. I've always loved it. Every minute of it."

More than 40 years later, DePue said: "If there is a Hall of Fame for referees and umpires, then Clem Brooks has got to be in it.

"No question whatsoever. Clem Brooks is a Hall of Famer."

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