Jerry Hendrickson poses with his officiating sons, from left, Jon, Steve and Dan. (Peter J. Wallner | MLive.com)
WYOMING, MI – Forgive the Hendrickson family if they let down their officiating guard for just a moment Friday.
Three football officiating brothers – a remarkable achievement in its own right – will join their father’s crew in what may be the best call of the season. They will officiate together for the Wyoming Lee-Grand Rapids Union game at Houseman Field as their father, Jerry, begins his 53rd and final season as a referee.
The game may be a tie as far as mutual admiration within the family, but the reluctant star unquestionably will be Jerry Hendrickson, a fixture around Grand Rapids football games for decades.
“It doesn’t matter where we go for a game, everyone knows him and he knows them all, and they’re happy to see him,” said middle son Steve Hendrickson. “To see that, and see the effect he has on people, that makes you pretty proud as a son.”
The occasion doesn’t get any better for a dad, either, no matter the age of his kids.
“This will be a nice opportunity,” said Jerry Hendrickson, 78. “I doubt we’ll get to do this again, so I’m looking forward to it.”
LAST CHANCE TO WORK TOGETHER
It won’t be the first time the four have worked together, but it will probably be the last. Jon Hendrickson officiates Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference games on Saturdays and is often out of town.
They don’t recall how many times they have worked together, though it’s not more than a handful. More often it has been one or two of them together. Dan, his youngest son at 43, does high school games. He has joined him many times the past 15 years, including freshman and junior varsity on Thursdays before varsity games on Friday. He’s on his father’s regular crew along with Steve.
This last hurrah Friday was set up by other members of his crew in longtime friends Gene Debbaudt, Lynn Benedict and Jim Stone.
“To me, and to a lot of people, he’s a mentor,” said Debbaudt, an official for 24 years who joined Hendrickson’s crew when his sons joined 15 years ago. “He’s very low key. If you mess up, he’ll let you know about it but he lets you learn from your mistakes. He does it in a way that’s not aggressive or offensive. He’s a teacher.”
NOT THE ORIGINAL CALL
Jerry Hendrickson didn’t plan it this way. Long ago, after playing football at Union and Hope College, he wanted to be a coach. Instead, he worked as a probation officer and continued to attend games. That prompted a suggestion from his wife, Karen.
“She was the one who got me into it, really,” he said of his wife of 55 years. “She said, ‘Well, as long as you’re going to all these games, you might as well go and get paid.’”
That was 1963.
“I do remember, when we did a doubleheader we got $5 for a freshman game and $7 for a JV game and I went home with $12, which I thought was wonderful,” Hendrickson said with a chuckle. “I got to do something I liked and got paid for it.”
He did varsity high school basketball and football before he joined Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association football games in 1972, then onto 16 years as a Big Ten Conference referee. He left in 1995, in part so he could do high school games with his sons.
Yep, his sons, who all went to Wyoming Rogers, also grew up to be officials.
A LIFETIME OF OFFICIATING
“He has been at it my entire life so it has always been a part of my life,” said Jon, 49, and the first of the sons to become a ref. “But none of us got into it until after college. It wasn’t pushed on us, but I know for me, I just kind of got the bug and it went from there.”
Over the years, Hendrickson, who later spent nearly 47 years as an educator at Davenport University and Grand Rapids Community College, has kept intact a crew with his sons Dan and Steve along with Debbaudt, Benedict and Stone, who will step aside Friday so Jon can work with family members.
The crew won’t exactly be working a blockbuster. The Wyoming Lee-Grand Rapids Union game pits two teams on long losing streaks of 20-plus games. But that may be the beauty of it. According to Steve Hendrickson, the game will be a reminder of a lesson learned from his father long ago.
“He said, ‘It might not be the biggest game of the night, but remember that it is the biggest game of the week to the kids on that field,’” he said.
Jerry Hendrickson, center, flanked by sons and longtime crew members. From left, Jim Stone, Steve Hendrickson, Jon Hendrickson, Dan Hendrickson, Gene Debbaudt and Lynn Benedict. (Peter J. Wallner | MLive.com)
Ad Choices