By ROY HESS | Staff Writer
Longevity and consistency have marked Mike Buck’s career as a football referee.
He became one of the most trusted sports officials in the Rio Grande Valley.
Buck’s high school football officiating career started in 1979 and ran through 2017. It included 706 varsity and 738 subvarsity games across 38 years. Including all-star contests and playoff games, his lifetime total as a football official was 1,444 games.
Buck, formerly a longtime Harlingen resident who recently moved to Bastrop, will be enshrined into the RGV Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday along with eight other individuals, including former Marine Military Academy football coach Jim Morton, previously of Harlingen, who will be inducted posthumously.
The organization’s 32nd annual induction banquet at Pharr Events Center begins with dinner at 5 p.m., scholarship presentations at 5:30 p.m. and the program at 6 p.m. An informal reception for the inductees is scheduled at 4 p.m.
For more information, visit www.rgvshof.net
The former football official eagerly anticipates Saturday’s event.
“ I’ve known about it for some time, and it’s been pretty exciting getting ready for it and preparing a five-minute speech,” Buck said. “I can’t wait to get down to the Valley (from Bastrop). We’re really looking forward to it.”
Before becoming a football official, Buck started working at Texas State Technical College in Harlingen in 1976 and served in various capacities until 2008. The positions included vice president of administrative services and later associate vice chancellor of administrative services for the TSTC system. His duties involved overseeing $50 million-plus in construction at the school.
It was in 1979 that a co-worker at TSTC asked Buck if he would like to start officiating football games. Buck was intrigued by the offer and said yes. The rest is history.
He has been a member of the Valley football officials organization, TASO, since 1979. He officiated an average of 20 varsity games per season for approximately 20 years.
Among the high-level Texas high school football playoff games he officiated are a Class 5A Division II state quarterfinal between Richardson and Temple in 1993, the Class 4A Division II state championship between Stephenville and La Marque in 1998, and the 4A Division II state semifinal between Ennis and Wichita Falls in 2000.
Buck was the head linesman for the 2005 Texas High School Coaches Association All-Star Game at the Alamodome in San Antonio. He was the head linesman for the Intense Football League in 2007, including the league’s championship game. Buck served as convention chairman for the 2009 TASO Football State Convention in McAllen.
He retired as a major in the Texas Army National Guard in 1997 after a 25-year career. He served as an assistant plans and operation officer (G3).
“Being a football official has influenced me in all kinds of ways,” Buck said. “Being a football official makes me think that I’m a problem solver. It helped me in 25 years with the National Guard. I learned (as an official) to study the rules manual and better communicate with coaches and lead an officiating crew. You don’t want mistakes (on the field during games) so you can have a good post-game review.
“I believe being a football official helped me improve as a college administrator, too,” he added. “Officiating has influenced me in a lot of (positive) ways.”
Throughout his career as a football referee, Buck enjoyed officiating the subvarsity games on Saturdays just as much as the varsity contests on Friday nights. He did that with a desire to help train younger officials who were starting out and gaining experience on the subvarsity level, just like he did.
Buck is scheduled to receive the Curly Hays Award at the annual THSCA Convention in July in Houston. It’s an award that recognizes the top high school official in the state. It is an honor given to only one official each year by the Texas coaching organization.
“Receiving the Curly Hays Awards next month is going to be pretty exciting, too,” Buck said.
Buck and his wife, Linda, moved to Bastrop from Harlingen about one year ago. They have been married 44 years and are the parents of three grown children — Leslie Kutzberger, Matt Buck and Ryan Buck.
Being inducted into the RGV Sports Hall of Fame is an honor he humbly accepts, Buck said.
“I’ve lived there (in the Valley), I’ve worked there and I saw sports there,” he said. “I played six sports myself growing up, so I’m a sports fanatic.”