Transcript

A History of Refereeing

From The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 19 min · 3,306 words · 25 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "A History of Refereeing", an episode of The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered published January 19, 2026 (19 min, about 3,306 words). It mentions 17 people, works and ideas, including Michael Joker, Casius Dio, Richard Mulaster, Queensbury rules, Michelle Scalesi Sugamaya.

What this episode is about

The topic explores the history and significance of officiating in sports, emphasizing its role in ensuring fairness and equity on the playing field. It highlights the long-standing human affinity for sport, suggesting that the need for organized competition and impartial refereeing has deep psychological and cultural roots that extend back to early human societies.

Key takeaways

  • Complaining about refs is as American as apple pie—maybe we should just add a referee to the recipe.
  • Fairness in sports is the last bastion against life's unfairness—unless, of course, we consider the infamous NERO incident.
  • Referees: ancient Egypt's unsung heroes; even back then, they knew how to handle an unruly crowd with a whip!
  • Athletic competition predates civilization, but impartial judgment might be the only thing that’s truly modern. Welcome to fairness!
  • From shouting fans to bribed judges, the officiating drama remains timeless—just like your brother's classic 'eye loss' line.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 3:00: Doa El Sharif, Michelle Scalesi Sugamaya, World History Bulletin
  2. – 6:00: Casius Dio, Michael Joker, Olympic judges, NS Gil
  3. – 9:00: Richard Mulaster, International Journal of the History of Sport, Queensbury rules, Mike Higgins
  4. – 12:00: Dick Haim, Queensbury rules, John Doyle, William Mlan
  5. – 18:00: Automated Ball Strike System, Ned Kelly

Notable quotes from "A History of Refereeing"

  • University of Oregon argued based on an ethnographic study of huntergatherer societies published in a 2012 edition of the journal Evolutionary Psychology that sport is so…
    about Michelle Scalesi Sugamaya · at
  • Historian Michael Joker notes on a blog on the website of the Swiss National Museum that spectators and the emperor got to decide who won and who lost. So the outcome was not…
    about Michael Joker · at
  • Likewise, the Greek chronicler Pacius noted an instance where a judge was accused of corruption in adjudicating the winner of a foot race leading to disputes over the result and another.
    about Paci · at
  • Circumstances be examined which are necessary for the training up of children, English educator Richard Mulaster argued both for more defined rules of the game of football, a…
    about Richard Mulaster · at
  • 19th century. And after the Queensbury rules were introduced later in the century, there was an increasing emphasis on the appointment of experienced amateur referees. When the…
    about Queensbury rules · at
  • Of referees, that is referees from all the regions in the world where soccer is played. You can have referees who have never handled a truly big game like a World Cup. In…
    about John Doyle · at
  • Therefore, becoming baseball's first umpiring staff. Perhaps the greatest umpiring scandal of that game came in 1882 when umpire and former player Dick Haim was found to be…
    about Dick Haim · at
  • Baseball will fully implement an autophoto strike system called the automated ball strike system or ABS.
    about Automated Ball Strike System · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Michael Joker — Person · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as a sports historian writing about ancient/medieval refereeing and the limits of neutrality in Roman games and tournaments.
  • Casius Dio — Person · Referenced historical source · 1 mention · first at
    Quoted as the Roman historian who recorded Nero bribing Olympic judges, illustrating ancient officiating corruption.
    However, an oath only goes so far. In the 2nd century AD, Roman historian Casius Dio records that in 67 AD, Roman Emperor Nero bribed the Helio Daikai with a million cysteros and Roman citizenship in exchange for declaring.
  • Richard Mulaster — Person · Referenced historical author/educator · 1 mention · first at
    Presented as an early advocate (1581) for defined football rules and a referee to reduce disputes.
  • Michelle Scalesi Sugamaya — Person · Referenced academic researcher · 1 mention · first at
    Used to support the claim that sport is widespread in hunter-gatherer societies and may be a universal feature of human psychology.
  • Doa El Sharif — Person · Referenced independent scholar · 1 mention · first at
    Provides historical evidence from ancient Egypt that organized sports had rules and neutral referees thousands of years ago.
    Organized sports have an ancient origin with references in Egypt dating back some 5,800 years. Independent scholar Doa El Sharif explains in a 2020 edition of World History…
  • Dick Haim — Person · Referenced scandal figure · 1 mention · first at
    Used as an example of early professional baseball umpiring corruption (colluding with gamblers) and lifetime ban.
  • NS Gil — Person · Referenced subject-matter writer · 1 mention · first at
    Cited for details about Roman gladiatorial referees (rudes) and their identifying clothing/tools.
    Senior referee, or a sakunda rutus or assistant. Latinist NS Gil explains in an article on thoughtco last April that these officials were identified by their white tunics and…
  • Mike Higgins — Person · Referenced academic author · 1 mention · first at
    Cited for scholarship on the professionalization and institutional development of refereeing in the 19th century.
    Referee was given a whistle. Mike Higgins of the University of Cumbria wrote in a 2023 edition of the International Journal of the History of Sport that referees began to be…
  • John Doyle — Person · Referenced sports writer/commentator · 1 mention · first at
    Quoted criticizing FIFA’s referee selection approach (representative rather than elite), linking structure to bad calls.
  • William Mlan — Person · Referenced historical sports official (uncertain spelling/identity) · 1 mention · first at
    Named as the first professional MLB umpire in 1876; likely a transcript misspelling of a known historical figure.
    According to the league, the first professional umpire was William Mlan from Philadelphia, who ired the first game in National League history between Boston and Philadelphia on April 22nd of that year.
  • Paci — Person · Referenced historical chronicler (uncertain identification) · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as a Greek chronicler noting accusations of judge corruption and conflicts of interest in contests.
  • Ned Kelly — Person · Referenced historical figure (contextual comparison) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned to contextualize the scale of a sports riot in Sydney (1879) that briefly displaced his news coverage.
    A riot in Sydney over a call in a cricket match against England in 1879 briefly pushed Bush Bandit Ned Kelly out of the headlines. In 1963, a controversial ruling following a mid-ra.

Books & papers

  • World History Bulletin — Book · 1 mention · first at
    Organized sports have an ancient origin with references in Egypt dating back some 5,800 years. Independent scholar Doa El Sharif explains in a 2020 edition of World History…
  • International Journal of the History of Sport — Book · 1 mention · first at
    Wrote in a 2023 edition of the International Journal of the History of Sport that referees began to be used in sports such as pugilism from the early 19th century. And after…

Products & tech

  • Automated Ball Strike System — Product · Referenced technology in sports officiating · 1 mention · first at
    Highlights advancements in officiating technology

Concepts & topics

  • Queensbury rules — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
  • Olympic judges — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    The outcome was not necessarily a neutral decision. But did such referees make bad calls? The website olympicle legacy.com appines that throughout the ages the Olympic judges…

Full transcript with timestamps

So, we are in the playoff season of that weird sport that we play here in America called football, despite the fact that the foot rarely touches the ball. And that has led to the typical complaints after every game about bad calls and misiciating. Uh, and you know, I'll tell you the truth. I'm not a real big fan of sport but I do consider myself somewhat of an expert on complaining about officials because I have lifelong experience with an elite practitioner of that particular activity. My older brother uh is perhaps one of the the greatest referee complainers that has ever lived. To my knowledge, he originated the gym, "Did you lose your eyesight when you lost your hair?" which was shouted so loudly at a professional basketball game in the 1990s that it could be heard clearly on television. And to the referee's credit he even laughed. And to, you know, in my brother's defense, that referee maybe

could have chosen to referee an outside sport where they at least would have given him a hat. But the thing is, even if you don't much care about sports, you should care about sports officiating because fairness counts in sports. It's important. The fact is in most of life life is simply not fair. It's not. And there's not much that we can do about that. And sports is just one place where we should be able to guarantee an even playing field and our attempts to do that deserve to be remembered. It is possible that some version of organized sport predates civilization with some cave paintings in the Lascow caves dated to the upper Paleolithic implying wrestling competitions. In fact, Michelle Scalesi Sugamaya of the University of Oregon argued based on an ethnographic study of huntergatherer societies published in a 2012 edition of the journal Evolutionary Psychology that sport is so common in such societies

that it suggests that the motivation to engage in them is a universal feature of human psychology. However, these sports tend to be more self-regulating. While engagement in some version of sports seems universal and might serve important cultural needs, the idea of an impartial arbiter seems to have come later. Organized sports have an ancient origin with references in Egypt dating back some 5,800 years. Independent scholar Doa El Sharif explains in a 2020 edition of World History Bulletin that relief scenes in Egyptian temples and tombs portray a number of sports played at least as far back as the pre-denastic period including hunting, fishing boxing, javelin throwing, wrestling gymnastics, weightlifting, and rowing in team sports that included versions of hockey and tugofwar. These sports had apparently developed rules and thus referees. Share writes, "Thousands of years ago, ancient Egyptians laid down

the basic rules for competitive games. They chose neutral referees, uniforms for each team in multiplayer games and celebrated winners by dressing them with different necklaces. Likewise, ancient Greeks included referees, which were called the Helenodike in their ancient Olympic games, traditionally dated to have originated in 776 BC. The term translates as the judges of the Greeks. In ancient Rome, gladiatorial games were refereed by former gladiators who had won their freedom via success in the arena. Symbolically, such men were given a wooden sword that was called a rutus that represented proof that they had won their freedom. Thus, such men when engaged as referees enforcing rules in the arena were called rutus and were either generally a suma rutus, meaning senior referee, or a sakunda rutus or assistant. Latinist NS Gil explains in an article on thoughtco last April that these officials were identified by their

white tunics and carried batons and whips which was they pointed out illegal movements. According to Gil Rutus could earn fame and wealth as game officials and some are identified by name in ancient inscriptions. However, sports historian Michael Joker notes on a blog on the website of the Swiss National Museum that spectators and the emperor got to decide who won and who lost. So the outcome was not necessarily a neutral decision. But did such referees make bad calls? The website olympicle legacy.com appines that throughout the ages the Olympic judges were renowned for their fairness. The helioikai were required to swear an oath to make a fair judgment and not take bribes.

However, an oath only goes so far. In the 2nd century AD, Roman historian Casius Dio records that in 67 AD, Roman Emperor Nero bribed the Helio Daikai with a million cysteros and Roman citizenship in exchange for declaring him the winner of several contests including a chariot race that he didn't even finish. Although the website Ancient Origins notes there may have been a further incentive. Of course, the judges were probably put in a bind because if they rejected the bribe, they may have risked losing their lives.

Likewise, the Greek chronicler Pacius noted an instance where a judge was accused of corruption in adjudicating the winner of a foot race leading to disputes over the result and another where a judge was allowed to win a contest in which he was both a participant and judge. That is to say there were ancient Romans and Greeks arguing that the fix was in at least some 1900 years ago, just like we still do today, although though they would have done so in Latin. Referees were also an important part of medieval sport, especially marshall sports like chivalous tournaments where Juker notes that knights who did not behave in a chivalous manner could be fined or even disqualified from a tournament by heralds in charge of enforcing rules and determining winners. Part of the goal was to prevent fatalities. As Juker notes, apart from everything else, the church had banned this type of combat and could refuse a Christian burial for

anyone who were killed. Still, he writes, "There are hardly any records from the Middle Ages referring to arbiters or referees as biased or corruptible and therefore not to be trusted. But there were some, for example, in a contemporary account of a six-day tournament held in the French village of Chauvini in 1285 put Jacqu Brtell describes the heralds in charge of enforcing the rules as squawking like a flock of crows and writes that not even the biblical king Herod, the embodiment of greed, was a hundth part as grasping as a herald out to grab what they can saying a curse on the lot of them always on the take, giving not a thing and full of lies and pomposity. Duker concludes despite the posity of research and documentary evidence, it's safe to assume that referees in the Middle Ages were also only human and it's entirely feasible that they were influenced to some extent. The idea of a referee can

be seen in the term umpire which was first coined in the late middle ages. According to etmology online, the term is derived from the old French nonper meaning an odd number not even in reference to a third person to arbitrate between two people. But there is special meaning there as the term literally means not equal suggesting a decision maker who is above the others. However the term was first used as part of legal proceedings and Ethmology online writes its use in the gaming sense was not recorded until 1714. The judge being not equal could be literal. Monarchs acted as judges part of the divine rights of kings and this may however result in a conflict of interest. In an account from 1026 English King Canute the Great made an illegal move in chess and essentially as King Arbiter changed the rule in his favor. When his opponent, the Earl Oled too loudly, Canute had him killed. Duker argues as sports became more regulated

the need for an impartial referee became more important. In his 1581 publication positions wherein these primitive circumstances be examined which are necessary for the training up of children, English educator Richard Mulaster argued both for more defined rules of the game of football, a term that he may have coined and which we Americans of course called soccer, but for a referee. For if one stand by which can judge of the play, and is judge over the parties, and hath authority to command in the place, all those inconveniences have been, I know and will be, I am sure, very lightly redressed. Nay, they will never enter meddle in the matter. Neither shall there be complaint where there is no cause.

Were he to read a modern sports blog, he might revise his assessment that a referee will eliminate complaints. And there's little evidence that his call in the 16th century for soccer referees was immediately heated. Jucker writes, for example, that the first football rules were established in Switzerland in 1863 and a referee was introduced to the game in 1874. Four years later, he writes, "The referee was given a whistle." Mike Higgins of the University of Cumbria wrote in a 2023 edition of the International Journal of the History of Sport that referees began to be used in sports such as pugilism from the early 19th century. And after the Queensbury rules were introduced later in the century, there was an increasing emphasis on the appointment of experienced amateur referees. When the modern forms of soccer and rugby emerged, they followed the same stages beginning with joint agreement by the

two sides, then one umpire for each side, the introduction of a neutral referee as their national authorities gained in power and finally a new step with two umpires becoming linesmen. In London, referee societies for both association football and for rugby were first established in 1893. Over the course of the 19th century, professional organizations arose in numerous sports establishing authority and codifying rules. But controversies continued. In 1896, the heavyweight boxing championship between Bob Fitz Simmons and Tom Shy was marred by the referee's decision to award the match to Shy after Fitz Simmons knocked him to the mat. The referee contended in a controversial call that Fit Simmons had hit Shy below the belt, a violation of the Queensbury rules. The crowd was disgusted and accused the referee of being corrupt. It was a surprising result since promoters had chosen the famous Western lawman

Wyatt Herp to referee the match under the impression that his reputation would prevent such scandals. Football, the European kind, is a game where referees can have a significant impact on a game. And professional sport has been rocked with numerous scandals involving allegations of referees being bribed or threatened. Just last year, it was revealed that a 5-year investigation by the Turkish Football Federation found that 371 of 571 match officials in Turkey had betting accounts with 152 of those actively gambling. It is the most recent of numerous large scandals involving match fixing by referees. But the sport is also subject to simply bad calls. Some notorious examples have referees missing scores and passes made with the players hands challenging that claim that the game is a true game of football. Significant games have turned on calls regarding goals that seem to have been obviously wrong. While those

are going to be a part of any sport some critics point to the way that the game appoints referees. With sports writer John Doyle quoted on the radio station The World in 2014 that FIFA insist on having not the elite referees of the world, but a representative group of referees, that is referees from all the regions in the world where soccer is played. You can have referees who have never handled a truly big game like a World Cup. In America, as the game of baseball developed, umpires were originally volunteers, usually provided by the home team. It would be local people of standing. According to Major League Baseball, umpires were not professionalized until the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs was organized in 1876.

According to the league, the first professional umpire was William Mlan from Philadelphia, who ired the first game in National League history between Boston and Philadelphia on April 22nd of that year. Two years later, the league mandated that umpires be paid $5 a game. And in 1879, National League President William A. Hullbert appointed a group of 20 men from which teams could choose an umpire. Therefore, becoming baseball's first umpiring staff. Perhaps the greatest umpiring scandal of that game came in 1882 when umpire and former player Dick Haim was found to be colluding with gamblers. He was investigated by a private detective after the owner of the Detroit Wolverines became suspicious of some of his game calls. He was banned for life from baseball.

But professional umpires can still make mistakes, and several sports sites are happy to list some of the worst, some of which affected championship series. Some border on ridiculous, such as in game one of the 1996 American League Championship Series between the Yankees and the Orioles when umpire Rich Garcia somehow failed to notice that a 12-year-old Yankee fan had reached several feet over the fence to grab a fly ball. Rather than calling the batter out, Garcia called it a home run allowing the Yankees to tie the game.

While the first professional basketball league was established in 1898 and the National Basketball Association was founded in 1949, the league didn't have a professional organization for referees until 1973. Previously, referees were paid per game. Moreover, the league didn't move to using three referees per game until the 1988 season, long after college and high school leagues. Still, even with three referees, even championship games have turned out dubious calls or non- calls. The league was rocked in 2007 was revealed that referee Tim Donagy was betting on games that he officiated that he made calls to influence the point spread during the 2003 4 and 20067 seasons. Donagy was sentenced to 15 months in prison. After serving his sentence, he went on to referee professional wrestling, which says a lot about that sport.

In the other game of football, the National Football League writes on its website that undertrained, illequipped and loosely supervised, the officials contributed to the sluggish, lowscoring rough and tumble games the NFL produced in its infancy. The league took significant steps, assigning officials to specific positions in 1938 and eventually moving to a seven person officiating crew. While the league has avoided the large referee bribery scandals that have rocked other professional sports, the league suffers from issues of consistency. While the league does weekly reviews and claims that its officials are accurate on 98.9% of calls, that perception is clearly not shared by fans if you simply watch the sports pages this morning. In response to fan complaints, in 1986, the league instituted the inclusion of instant replay, using television to advise on certain calls. But the rule was suspended in 1991 over concerns that it

was delaying the game, only to be reinstituted with different rules in 1999. Of course, referee scandals aren't limited to professional sport. There have been numerous officiating scandals at the Olympics. In 1920, the final of football, and yes, Americans by that they mean soccer, ended when the team from Czechoslovakia walked off the pitch to protest a referee's decision, giving the win to Belgium. In 1972, confusing clock management by referees resulted in the last three seconds of the basketball final being played three times, leading to a controversial one-point win by the Soviet Union over the United States. In 2016, the authority governing amateur boxing admitted significant errors by officials in a match fixing scandal at the Olympics in Rio. An independent investigation of the organization found systematic issues, but the results have yet to be overturned. The organization was banned from organizing competitions

in the 2020 games and has since undergone numerous reforms. New technologies have altered refereeing. The first used of photo finish to determine the result of a horse race was in 1881. Since then, numerous sports have developed review systems using television, photo, and computer assistance, including crickets comically named Snickometer or SNKO, which uses sensitive microphones and oscilloscopes to detect faint sounds of the ball hitting the bat, glove, or pad. Starting in the 2026 season, Major League Baseball will fully implement an autophoto strike system called the automated ball strike system or ABS.

And fan feelings have endured more than water cooler talk about refereeing. There have been several examples of rioting and violence following controversial calls by sports officials. A riot in Sydney over a call in a cricket match against England in 1879 briefly pushed Bush Bandit Ned Kelly out of the headlines. In 1963, a controversial ruling following a mid-ra crash resulted in harness racing fans in Long Island rioting, attacking the judge's booth, fighting with police, and setting fires. In 2001, referees reversing a call resulted in Cleveland Browns fans at Cleveland Stadium throwing plastic beer bottles onto the field, forcing the teams to leave for safety. And the chaotic event was called Bottlegate by the press. riding after a controversial goal in a 2007 match between Katana and Polarmo resulted in the death of a police officer in Italy.

And referees have faced violence and attempts at intimidation. There are at least four instances since 2013 of soccer referees being killed by angry fans or players. Verbal abuse of officials has grown in the internet age and is cited as a main reason of professional burnout among referees at all levels of sport. ironically leading to less experienced officiating. While there's a long-held belief that referees tend to be biased towards the home team because of the energy of the crowd recent research has called that conclusion into question. And despite all the complaints, external review tends to show that modern referees in modern sports tend to be highly accurate, although so many calls have to be made that there will always be missed or questionable calls. I certainly don't know anybody that I know that is an NFL fan who's going to agree with the league's argument that their referees

are correct upon review some 99% of the time. Heck, in a 1998 televised Thanksgiving game between the Steelers and the Lions, the referee even messed up the coin toss. The fact is that if you are a long-term fan of any team in any sport, you'll remember at least one game where your team was cheated by a bad call. Some of those arguments go on for decades. But part of the reason has to do with the psychology of being a fan. We tend to be invested in the teams. And that means that we are subject to what psychologists call confirmation bias.

Which in brief means that no matter who you, are,, no matter, what, your, team,, and no matter what the sport, the referees are always going to be biased against your team. And I think it's doubtful that adding photo replays is really going to change that perception because after all, what fun would sport be if we couldn't argue about it the next day? I hope you enjoyed watching this episode of the history guy. And if you did please feel free to like and subscribe and share the history guy with your friends. And if you also believe that history deserves to be remembered, then you can support the history guy as a member on YouTube, a supporter on our community at locals, or as a patron on Patreon. You can also check out our great merchandise shop or book a special message from the history guy on Cameo.

Here we go.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "A History of Refereeing"?

The History Guy (Host), Michelle Scalesi Sugamaya (Guest), Doa El Sharif (Guest), NS Gil (Guest), Michael Joker (Guest), Mike Higgins (Guest), John Doyle (Guest).

What is "A History of Refereeing" about?

The topic explores the history and significance of officiating in sports, emphasizing its role in ensuring fairness and equity on the playing field. It highlights the long-standing human affinity for sport, suggesting that the need for organized competition and impartial refereeing has deep psychological and cultural roots that extend back to early human societies.

What is mentioned in this The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered episode?

17 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Michael Joker, Casius Dio, Richard Mulaster, Queensbury rules, Michelle Scalesi Sugamaya, Doa El Sharif. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "A History of Refereeing"?

The episode runs 19 min; the transcript is about 3,306 words in 25 timestamped sections.

More from The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.