By Roscoe Nance
The number of former MEAC athletes who have made their mark in the NFL has been well-documented. Most football fans are familiar with the likes of Donnie Shell, Harry Carson, John Taylor, Rashean Mathis and Antoine Bethea.
But it is a well-kept secret that the MEAC has 11 alumni who are NFL game officials and four more in the league office.
"That's absolutely great,'' MEAC Commissioner Dennis Thomas says. "I think it speaks well for our conference to be able to attract quality officials and have them move on to higher levels. It speaks well that we are able to identify talented people.
MEAC alumni officiating on the field this season are Jerome Bolger, Scott Green, Greg Steed, Greg Yette, Adrian Hill, Roy Ellison, Wayne Mackey, Dyrol Prioleau, Scott Edwards, Barry Anderson and Keith Washington.
Four more MEAC alums - Johnny Grier, Jim Duke and Neely Dunn and Dave Coleman - are in the league office. Grier, Duke and Dunn supervisors and Coleman is Director of Officials and second in command in the officiating department.
In addition, retired replay official Larry Hill and UFL Supervisor of Officials Larry Upson - a former NFL Supervisor of Officials - are MEAC alumni.
Grier attributes the MEAC's legacy of NFL game officials to Leo Miles, who worked in the conference and in 1974 became the first black to officiate a Super Bowl. Miles, a former athletic director at Howard University, was a head linesman in the NFL for 22 years. He died in 1995.
"It started with Leo's mentoring,'' Grier says. "Leo went into the league and worked with us in the MEAC. As we started going into the league, each one of us worked with guys in the conference. It's like a mentoring system. That's the only way I can explain it. I hate to use the term give back, but all the game officials still come back and work with guys now.''
It's not unusual for former MEAC officials who are in the NFL and live in the Washington, D.C., area to work with current conference officials during scrimmages at Howard and Morgan State.
"They point out things that they can do better,'' Grier says. "There's nothing like having someone looking over your shoulder that has been where you're trying to get.''
Grier says when he was Supervisor of Officials for the MEAC, he frequently heard officials say they liked working in the MEAC because they knew they could move up. That hasn't changed judging by the number of alumni in the league.
"It's like recruiting,'' Thomas says. "It lets people know if you have the ability and you aspire to be an NFL official you can achieve that by starting with the MEAC. If you have the ability, people will notice. I look at it as being the same way as with student-athletes. If you have the ability, doesn't matter if you play in Division III, the MEAC or the BCS, they will find you. It's a matter of having the ability to produce, to perform.''
MEAC alumni have excelled after reaching the NFL. Green and Bolger are referees and crew chiefs. Green has worked three Super Bowls, including Super Bowl XLIV which was his first as a referee. His first Super Bowl was as back judge in 2002 when New England upset the St. Louis Rams in New Orleans. Super Bowl XLIV was the first for Steed, a back judge.
Ellison was umpire for the NFC Championship game last season and Prioleau was field judge. Mackey was an alternate for the 2010 Pro Bowl.
Their performances should dispel the notion that officiating in the MEAC is sub-par.
"I knew we had a number of officials in the league,'' Hampton athletic director Lonza Hardy Jr. says. "You hear a lot of people complain about officials. I guess that's an indication that the officials in our conference aren't nearly as bad as people think they are if they are going on to the National Football League. Without a doubt most people aren't aware that we have that many officials in the National Football League. Once they become aware, they would know they wouldn't be in the NFL if they weren't good officials on the college level.''
Grier says more widespread awareness of former MEAC officials' success in the NFL won't completely change how they are looked upon.
"We're looked at as a necessary evil,'' he says.
ESPN College Football Analyst Charlie Neal, who trains basketball officials and knows several officials in all sports personally, agrees that that the criticism - though unfair - isn't likely to end anytime soon.
"It goes with the territory,'' he says. "You never get the respect that you deserve. People always think you messed up their team. But the MEAC overall has had a pretty good reputation over the years.''