One of the most recognizable faces on the high school and military sports scene in Japan, Wilson Rudd, 72, is a retired Air Force master sergeant and longtime baseball, football and basketball referee in the Tokyo area. He has officiated high school, interservice and college games. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
TOKYO — He’s one of the most recognizable faces on a Japanese athletic field, be it interservice or high school.
In the fall, you’ll see him in a striped shirt, whistle between teeth, signalling touchdowns. During the winter, he’s calling fouls on the basketball court. In spring, he calls balls, strikes and outs.
It’s been that way for 50 years for Wilson Rudd, who has made a career of pleasing 50 percent of the teams, players, coaches and fans 50 percent of the time.
“He does sports each season and he’s done it for such a long time. He’s a constant,” said Tim Pujol, who coached for 17 years in Dallas, South Korea, before coaching the past five football seasons for Yokota High in Japan.
“Each place I’ve been a coach, there were a couple of guys who I saw who were always visible, who you got to know. Wilson fits that category here. It’s either Wilson or Mr. Rudd. Not ‘Ref.’ It just doesn’t sound right.”
“He’s the backbone” of the United Services for Japan Officials Association, said Ron Pang, a longtime colleague.
“It’s something that you have to like to do,” said Rudd, 72, a double retiree: from the Air Force as a master sergeant and from the USA Federal Credit Union and Exchange Service. “It takes game after game, working and concentrating on what you’re doing. You have to love it.”
This particular love affair began in 1953, after Rudd first set foot in Japan while enlisted in the Air Force. An officiating career was born when he was an umpire for fast-pitch softball in Japan in 1955. Baseball followed in 1957, basketball in 1960, football in 1974.
Besides calling the Rising Sun Bowl All-Japan high school championships in 2000 and 2002, Rudd has officiated more than 50 Far East high school basketball tournaments.
He’s even been called on to keep statistics and help with the scoring and timing of college events such as the Mirage Bowl, a regular-season NCAA football game held in Tokyo in the 1980s, and some Japan Bowl All-Star games in Yokohama.
Despite all that experience, he never stops reading the rules.
“You never get to the point where you quit learning,” he said. “Too many officials don’t want to read the books. You have to study them. I read them every year, and if you look hard enough, you’ll spot a little something new.”
“I think of him as a colleague, because he is an educator,” said Pujol, adding that Rudd never fails to attend a preseason coaches meeting to outline rule changes, and even attends some practices.
“During the course of a game, if there’s something an athlete is doing that’s not in compliance, he never had the mentality, to me, that some officials have, ‘A-ha! Caught ya!’” Pujol said. “He lets the coach and student-athlete know what they need to change. I respect all of that.”
“He’s understanding,” said Corie White, a senior at Yokota who played football and basketball. “He lets us play, to a certain extent. He’s not the type to blow a whistle or call a foul on each and every play. He’s a fair ref. I know I’m going to get a fair shake when he’s out there.”
Jimmy Davis, Nile C. Kinnick High School’s offensive coordinator and a Red Devils player in the 1980s, has dealt with Rudd as a player and coach.
“Say what you will about his calls, but he’s out there each and every game for the kids,” Davis said.
As the USFJOA’s most senior official, Rudd does a lot of behind-the-scenes work: scheduling high school and interservice seasons, recruiting referees from the transient pool of servicemembers, training and conducting clinics.
Such work is invaluable to the association, said Pang, 64, a retired Army sergeant major working at Camp Zama who officiated with Rudd for 17 years.
“Without him, the schools wouldn’t have the the officiating that would be needed. They’d have to use Japanese associations,” Pang said. “It’s unquestionable. Without Wilson, USFJOA would not be in existence.”
Of dealing with the verbal abuse that comes with the job, Rudd says it takes time to find a way to cope.
“You hear them,” he said of coaches, players and fans, “but then again, you don’t hear them. You shrug it off, don’t let them know you hear them or they’ll really let you have it. It takes some time.”
“A lot of officials talk the talk but can’t walk the walk,” Pang said. “And he walks the walk.”
Rudd’s planned retirement to Las Vegas sometime in the next year will leave a chasm, Pang said.
“He’ll be sorely missed. His shoes will be hard to fill. When he leaves, people are going to say they can do it, but … rules know- ledge, subject-matter expertise, there’s nobody who can compare to Wilson.”
