Throwback: Referee Bud Brubaker and crew had to work a rowdy 1968 game between Chicago and Washington

This Sunday, the Chicago Bears play the Washington Commanders — always a historic match-up.

Let’s throw things back to 1968 as referee Harry “Bud” Brubaker and his crew handled an early-season game between the Chicago Bears and the then Washington Redskins. Brubaker’s crew that day included umpire Barry Brown, head linesman Chuck Heberling, line judge Bill Schleibaum, back judge Stan Javie, and field judge Tony Skover. (The back judge and field judge designations were swapped in 1997; this reflects the terminology of the time.)

The clip shows Brubaker flagging the Bears for an unnecessary roughness foul with Bears players losing their composure. The late Dick Butkus, quells the protests and gets the information from Brubaker. There is a timeout where Brubaker talks to members of the Washington team about the foul he called. He then commented his partner Brown how silly the Bears were to protest the call.

The second play shows Javie reporting an unsportsmanlike conduct foul to Brubaker and he walks off the penalty. The footage ends with Brubaker telling the players to “settle down.”

A few things to note in the footage. There were no uniform penalty enforcement mechanics in 1968, except for the referee to march off the penalty. Brubaker did not give a preliminary signal. He signaled as he jogged off the penalty yardage, set the ball down and restarted the game quickly. Second, the unsportsmanlike conduct signal in 1968 was what we know today as the touchback signal.

There are a lot of bleeps in this footage. There is a lot of … salty language on the field and NFL officials sometimes use that language. But note that Brubaker never cussed at a player. Any bad language spoken by officials should never be personally directed at players or coaches.

Brubaker worked as a field judge and as a referee in the NFL from 1950-1970. In those years there was only one postseason game — the NFL Championship (with an occasional tie-breaking divisional playoff if needed). Brubaker worked the 1968 NFL Championship Game, where the Baltimore Colts beat the Cleveland Browns 34-0, advancing as heavy favorites to beat the Jets in Super Bowl III. He was the alternate for the 1965 NFL Championship Game.

Off the field, Brubaker was a teacher and a coach in the Los Angeles City School System for 40 years. When he wasn’t teaching or officiating, Brubaker was director of operations for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in San Diego County, a position he held for 25 years. He passed away in 1995 at the age of 85.

We called retired referee Jim Tunney to get some recollections about Brubaker. Tunney gave us a surprise. “Bud Brubaker was my uncle. My mother was a Brubaker,” Tunney said. Tunney recalled that Brubaker helped mentor him and counsel him about whether to go to the NFL or the AFL when the rival leagues were recruiting him in 1960. Tunney joined the NFL as a field judge and worked several games with Brubaker before Tunney became a referee.

“[Brubaker] worked from 1950-1970. He was 60 years old in 1970, and supervisor Art McNally said he had to retire,” Tunney recalled. “Ben Dreith changed all that. Brubaker was a very sharp, professional, good rules man,” he added.

Tunney also recalled that Brubaker was a high-quality high school baseball coach. “[Hall of Fame baseball manager] Sparky Anderson played for Bud Brubaker. Sparky always said his best coach was Brubaker,” Tunney said.

It was 56 years ago, but enjoy this rare mic’d up footage of Bud Brubaker and his crew in action.