Mason Lee "Red" Cashion (November 10, 1931February 10, 2019) was an

American football official In gridiron football, an official is a person who has responsibility in enforcing the rules and maintaining the order of the game. During professional and most college football games, seven officials operate on the field. Since 2015, Division ...

for 25 seasons in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL), where he was the referee for two

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

Biography

Cashion started officiating in 1952 while attending

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, and then worked for various high school and

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

conferences, most notably the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

. From 1972 to 1996, he officiated in the

(NFL), and was the referee in

Super Bowl XX Super Bowl XX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

and

Super Bowl XXX Super Bowl XXX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Dallas Cowboys and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

. Cashion began his career as a line judge in 1972 following the death of referee

Jack Vest Jack Douglas Vest (September 16, 1926 – June 2, 1972) was an American athlete, sports coach, and official. He was a 12-letter man at East Tennessee State University, winning honors in football, basketball, and baseball between 1946 and 1950. He ...

, which in turn created an opening at line judge when

Chuck Heberling Charles Heberling (April 28, 1925 – December 9, 2019) was an American football official in the National Football League and Western Pennsylvania sports administrator. He was the referee for both the Hail Mary Game and The Drive. He was an al ...

was promoted to referee to replace Vest. Cashion was promoted to referee in 1976 upon the retirement of long-time referee

Norm Schachter Dr. Norm Schachter (April 30, 1914 – October 5, 2004), born in Brooklyn, New York, was an American football official in the National Football League (NFL) for 22 years from 1954 to 1975. Over his career in the NFL, he worked three Super B ...

and the addition of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater in ...

. He wore uniform number 43 for most of his career. During the 1979–1981 seasons, when officials were numbered separately by positions instead of having one number assigned to each official, he wore number 8. Cashion was known by NFL players, coaches, and fans for his signature

first down A down is a period in which a play transpires in gridiron football. The down is a distinguishing characteristic of the game compared to other codes of football, but is synonymous with a "tackle" in rugby league. The team in possession of the f ...

call in which he would enthusiastically drawl ''"First dowwwwwn!"'' out to the crowd. In a 1997 interview with ''

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'', he said, "I don't know of any time that started it or stopped it. It was just something that sort of evolved and been there ever since". Cashion's promotion to referee came just one season after the NFL began equipping referees with wireless microphones to explain penalty calls and complex rulings to fans in the stadium, members of the media, and the television audience at home. Cashion was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. He also provided the voice of the referee for several versions of the ''

Madden NFL ''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

. Cashion died at age 87 on February 10, 2019.

References

External links

RED CASHION sits with David Nuno
via

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cashion, Red 1931 births 2019 deaths College football officials National Football League officials Texas A&M University alumni People from College Station, Texas Sportspeople from Texas

Biography

References

Further reading

External links