Officially, He Has Many Stories on Football : Gardner, 81, Recalls a Game Upstaged by War

Topics change often and easily during a conversation with Cletus (Biff) Gardner.

One minute he offers insights into a 19-year career of officiating in the National Football League. The next, he offers a jar of homemade guava jam.

Gardner, 81, helps Belle, his wife of 19 years, make gallons of the cherry-colored confection he loves to share.

“Isn’t it a beautiful color?” Gardner asked. A perfect match to his colorful life.

It has been 17 years since Gardner retired from his county job as parks and recreation director, 47 years since he coached football at Sweetwater High School and 24 years since he was an NFL official. But he remembers it all vividly.

Gardner founded and became the director of San Diego County Parks and Recreation in 1946, the same year he began his affiliation with the Hall of Champions, of which he is still the treasurer.

As a linebacker and a fullback at Villanova, his college football experience was capped by an appearance on the Eastern team in the 1931 Shrine East-West game.

“At the time, that was a big game,” Gardner said. “There weren’t any other postseason games to play in, and it was really an honor. In effect, it was an All-American team.”

Upon graduating, Gardner had offers to play professionally but declined and headed to San Diego.

“At the time,” he said, “there was no real knowledge of how long (a professional career) would last, so I decided to coach.”

He took a job as the football coach at St. Augustine High (1931-1938), then moved to Sweetwater, where he coached the Red Devils from 1938 to the spring semester of 1942. During that time, he worked part-time as a football official in the semipro Pacific Coast League.

As if it were yesterday, Gardner recalls a game in Balboa Stadium, where the PCL’s Los Angeles Bulldogs were playing the San Diego Bombers on Dec. 7, 1941.

“There were 32,000 people in the stands,” he recalled. “During halftime, it was announced that the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor. Within 25-30 minutes, over half the stadium had cleared out.”

Though past draft age, he enlisted in the Navy and served for 4 1/2 years, including a tour in New Caledonia. After the war, he was asked to officiate by the NFL.

“I got a telegram in June of 1946,” Gardner said. He’s still unsure of how the NFL found him but is glad it did. His tenure stretched from 1946 to 1965, and he didn’t miss a Sunday.

But he did miss work on Monday once.

“I got stuck in Green Bay,” Gardner explained. “Boy, what a place to get stuck. It was 22 below zero.”

Officials were told 10 days in advance where they would be working on Sunday, and it was their responsibility to get to the field on time.

“We just had to be there by kickoff,” Gardner said. “How we got there or where we stayed was our problem.”

For their services, officials were paid $50 for exhibition games and $100 for a regular game.

Along with his full-time job with the county, Gardner would pull triple-headers, officiating a high school game on Friday, a college game on Saturday and the pros on Sunday.

“I had three different rule books,” he said, “and three different game heads. I’d screw on a different head for each game.”

As an umpire, it was Gardner’s duty to watch line play. He said calling infractions was a matter of instinct.

“Most people don’t realize,” Gardner said, “that we have a reflex action. You watch, and you just know that there was something wrong on the play. You call it as you see it. You don’t think, you just do it. By the time you see the flag bounce on the ground, you know what the call is. And you can’t throw the flag back in your pocket and change your mind.”

Which brings Gardner to the touchy subject of instant replay, now being used by the NFL.

To replay or not?

He chuckles at the idea of those men in the press boxes, keeping tabs on the action with their fancy machines.

Most recently, when the Cleveland Browns were ousted from the first round of postseason play, controversy in the replay booth stirred the playoff pot.

Gardner’s first comments on the replay devices aren’t kind.

“Isn’t it nice to have second-guessers?” he said sarcastically. “Someone 5,000 miles away from the play is calling it. Isn’t it nice to photograph each and every play? In case you don’t see it, it’s nice to be able to do that.”

He then relents and admits it can undo otherwise irreparable damage.

“If instant replay can avoid a colossal error,” Gardner said, “then it’s worthwhile.”

He is quick to point out that it isn’t used that much and that it’s still in its infancy stages.

“They don’t reverse decisions on the field that much,” he said. “And it hasn’t been used long enough. You can’t judge it on a season or two. Let’s wait and see what happens after a few years.”

Gardner watches the games as most spectators do, on television. He said perspective of the play is distorted.

“I am the last to criticize officials,” he said. “Way up there, they have another view of it. You can’t always get the right view on TV; you don’t see a true angle of the play.”

He has made so many calls that none stick out as the most controversial of his career.

“Wherever you are,” he said, “you have the home rooters, and whatever your ruling on a close play, well it becomes controversial as far as they’re concerned.”

But he does remember one game in particular, in the late ‘40s at the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of 100,000 people.

“I called a foul on a player,” Gardner said, “and that player proceeded to tell me, ‘You little son-of-a-. . .’ ”

Soon the officiating crew was huddled in the middle of the field. Fines for unsportsmanlike conduct and foul language then were levied per word, so officials were arguing if the final part of the insult was a single, hyphenated word or not. At $100 a word, was it a $300 fine or $600?

“Here we were,” Gardner said with a laugh, “in the heat of the battle, and we were out there discussing grammar. I told the player, ‘Look, I’m giving you a break. It’s one word, so that’s a $300 fine, a 15-yard penalty and you’re out of the game.’ ”

Over the years, Gardner has seen the game evolve in specific ways.

“Now,” he said, “they’re throwing more passes and fake passes. They’re not running as much, my guess is. There’s more emphasis on the aerial game.”

And the calls haven’t evolved much.

Said Gardner: “Holding on the line, offsides, pass interference, as long as the game is played, they’ll still be doing that. I see no difference in the way they’re calling the game. It’s still the same rule book.”