Dick Jorgensen
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Richard M. Jorgensen (April 12, 1934 – October 10, 1990) was an American football official in the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
(NFL) for 22 years, through the
1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...
season, the last 19 years as a
referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...
. Jorgensen's officiating career was highlighted by being selected to referee
Super Bowl XXIV Super Bowl XXIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion fo ...
in January 1990. He was an alternate official for Super Bowl VIII in 1974 and Super Bowl XV in 1981.


Early years

Born and raised in
Neenah, Wisconsin Neenah ( ) is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, United States. It is situated on the banks of Lake Winnebago, Little Lake Butte des Morts, and the Fox River (Green Bay tributary), Fox River approximately northeast of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, O ...
, southwest of Green Bay, Jorgensen was a three-sport athlete at Neenah High School, where he starred in
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
and
tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
. His primary sport was
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
, played under longtime head coach Ole Jorgensen (1904–1988), his father. His mother Edith also worked at the school, as a physical education teacher. In Jorgensen's senior year in 1952, Neenah advanced to the state semifinals in basketball. and he was selected for the all-state team. A
shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game ...
, Jorgensen played
college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...
in the
Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...
at the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
in Madison under
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head coach Bud Foster. He was captain of the Badgers his senior year in
1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...
, graduated and served two years in the U.S. Navy, and married Adlon Dohme in 1959.


NFL official

After five seasons officiating high school and small college football, Jorgensen began his NFL career in
1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...
as a line judge. He was promoted to referee three years later in
1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...
when his crew chief from
1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...
, George Rennix, retired. In the NFL, Jorgensen was assigned to 12 post-season games, including four conference championship games and Super Bowl XXIV (he was the alternate referee for Super Bowl XV). On the field, Jorgensen wore uniform number 60 for the majority of his career (he wore number 6 from
1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
81, when officials were numbered separately by position). Known for his poise as a referee in the 1970s and 1980s, one incident summarized his presence and is often replayed in highlights. While approaching a fourth quarter scuffle during a Monday night game in November
1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...
, Jorgensen was inadvertently struck in the mouth by an elbow from
Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...
guard Larry Lee, who swung at
New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...
linebacker Lawrence Taylor. The blow caused a cut which required a stitch, but Jorgensen proceeded with the game after calling a penalty and ejecting Lee.


Bank president

Off the field, Jorgensen served as President of Marine Bank of Champaign-Urbana,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
. Active in the community as a civic leader, he was also president of the local chapter of the
United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit organization, nonprofit fundraising affiliates. Prior to 2015, United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public. Individual Un ...
, the chamber of commerce, and his country club.


Death

Super Bowl XXIV in January 1990 was Jorgensen's final game as a game official; that May, he was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder. He died five months later at age 56 on October 10 in Urbana, Illinois. For the remainder of the
1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...
season, NFL officials wore a black armband on their left sleeve with the white number 60 to honor Jorgensen. He and his wife Adlon had three daughters. Jorgensen was buried at Bailey Memorial Cemetery in Tolono.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jorgensen, Dick 1934 births 1990 deaths College football officials NFL officials Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball players Sportspeople from Neenah, Wisconsin American people of Danish descent Deaths from blood disease American men's basketball players Shooting guards 20th-century American sportsmen