THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Charles 'Bud' Ford also remembered for his whistle, generosity to CHS

University of Idaho fans will remember Charles “Bud” Ford for his generous contributions to the university, one of which led to the Bud and June Ford Club Room at the Kibbie Dome for Vandal football games.

A little farther north Ford, who lived in Coeur d’Alene and died Jan. 8 at age 91, was also known as a high school sports official.

In football, specifically, he was the “white hat”, or head referee, the man basically in charge of running the game.

“I worked with Bud, Bob Burton worked with Bud, Steve Hudson worked with Bud,” recalled Roger Stewart, who in addition to being a football official is the District 1 football commissioner.

“When I say ‘old-school’, I mean that with love and affection,” Stewart said. “Bud was old-school. When I first worked with Bud, he was still wearing the cotton knickers (pants), and the rest of us were high-tech; we were wearing the polyester pants.

“He reffed the games the way that fit his profile of fairness,” Stewart added. “If he had to fudge on a rule for the sake of his sense of equity, he would do that; that’s the way it was back in the day. But he was passionate about the kids, he LOVED being out on the football field.”

Dave Corbeill reffed football and basketball games for three decades, and worked games with Bud Ford in both sports.

Corbeill remembers Bud Ford reffing Corbeill’s high school basketball games when Corbeill played at Kellogg High in the late 1960s.

“He had a lot of pride in everything he did in football,” Corbeill said. “Obviously he cared a lot about the sport. He’d do park and rec, he’d do everything kids were involved in.

“He was all about the kids,” said Corbeill, a former District 1 commissioner in basketball, baseball, soccer and softball over the years. “He was the kind of referee I enjoyed, because he obviously didn’t do it for the money. He didn’t need the money; he did it because he wanted to give back to the sport.

“Everything he did in officiating was for the kids; that’s what I remember about Bud,” Corbeill said.

Dan Malcolm was a young man when he started officiating games with Bud Ford.

He marveled at how long Bud Ford worked as an official, and Malcolm envisioned himself someday being that guy — that reffed for years and years and years.

“He just reffed,” Malcolm said of Bud Ford, “and it didn’t matter to him which games they were (big or small); he was there.”

And, Malcolm said, Bud Ford was generous about passing along his knowledge to the younger officials.

“Bud was definitely a part of that … he worked with officials,” Malcolm said. “He knew the rules, and he worked with the younger guys … everybody. He was right there.”

YOU CAN’T miss it.

When you go to a Coeur d’Alene High home football field, there it is, off to the right as you look from the home bleachers.

The June Ford Viking Field House, a building Coeur d’Alene High was building in memory of Devon Austin and Ryan Reinhardt, former CHS student-athletes who died in a car crash.

Bud Ford was a big part of that.

“Mr. Ford heard about our efforts to create a long-lasting opportunity for kids at the CHS in memory of Devon and Ryan,” said Nick Rook, who was the Coeur d’Alene High baseball coach at the time. “There were many people that were instrumental in building the field house in memory of Devon and Ryan. Mr. Ford’s donation was paramount and massively impactful. We were beyond thankful for his and his wife’s contributions that helped make the field house possible. Mr. Ford’s contributions were commensurate with our visions to impact CHS for a very very long time.”

BACK TO reffing.

As District 1 football commissioner, Stewart is in charge of the area’s football officials — assigning them to games, working with them to make them better ...

And sometimes telling them when it was time to hang up their whistle.

Bud Ford refereed football games well into his 80s, finally retiring as an official roughly seven years ago, after a conversation with Stewart.

“He wasn’t ready to retire,” Stewart recalled. “He loved officiating, did not want to give it up, and even when got to an age where he really wasn’t mobile enough to do it, he still wanted to be out there in heart and spirit.”

And when the day finally came when Stewart had to have the difficult conversation with Ford ...

“We were friends,” Stewart recalled, “but he jokingly said he was writing me out of his will.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.