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Ray Dodez
Ramon Lee (Ray) Dodez (born February 14, 1931 in Dover, Delaware) was an American football official in the American Football League from 1968 to 1969, and the National Football League from 1970 to 1991. He worked 15 post season NFL games during his career, including Super Bowl XIX.

Education
Dodez graduated from Massillon High School (Ohio) in 1948, where played football, basketball, and baseball for the Massillon Tigers. He went on to play football and baseball at Wooster College (Ohio), where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science in 1952. His senior year at Wooster, Dodez was elected captain of the football team and won honorable mention for the United Press All-Ohio football team.

Officiating career
After graduation, Dodez was employed by the Ohio Bell Telephone Company in Dayton, Ohio, where he began officiating junior high school and high school football and basketball games. Ohio Bell transferred him to Findlay, Ohio in 1954, where he met A.N. “Chick” Smith, the supervisor of officials for the Ohio Athletic Conference. Smith offered Dodez an officiating job for the NCAA Division III conference. Between 1954 and 1962, Dodez had worked his way up to the college ranks by 1954, and was officiating NCAA Division I games in the Mid-American Conference, and the Missouri Valley Conference.

In 1962, Dodez became the Supervisor of Officials for the minor league United Football League. He held this position until 1964, when the league was folded and several of the surviving teams went on to form the Continental Football League. For Dodez and other officials, the United Football League was considered at “stepping stone” to the AFL or the NFL, which were the two major professional leagues in the US during the 1960s.

Ohio Bell transferred Dodez to Columbus in August, 1964, where he resumed officiating college and AAA high school games.

In 1967, Mel Hein, the supervisor of officials from the American Football League, offered Dodez a position for the 1968 season. Dodez worked in the AFL for 2 years as a Line Judge and a Head Linesman. There were 37 officials in the AFL in 1969, 33 of who would join the NFL when the leagues merged.

When the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, Dodez became and NFL official and was assigned to the highly regarded crew of referee Tommy Bell, that also included Tom Kelleher, Fritz Graf, George Kennard, and Bill Summers, another former AFL official. Dodez was the Head Linesman on the Bell crew through 1976. That year Jerry Markbreit, a highly regarded official from the collegiate Big Ten Conference, joined the crew as the Line Judge. Following Bell’s retirement in 1977, Markbreit took over as referee, and Dodez remained on his crew until 1978.

Dodez joined Chuck Heberling’s crew from 1979 to 1981, followed by three years as a “swing man”, filling in for officials who were injured or ill, from 1982 to 1984. During this period, he became the only official in the history of the NFL to serve as the line judge, back judge, head linesman, and side judge in the same season.

In January, 1985, he was selected by the NFL to work as the Line Judge officiating Super Bowl XIX between the Miami Dolphins and the San Francisco 49ers. Dodez returned to Chuck Heberling’s crew in 1985, followed by a year on Dick Hantak’s crew in 1986, and four years on Gene Barth’s crew. He retired from officiating in 1991, at which time he became a college official scout for the NFL. Health issues forced him to retire from the NFL entirely in 1994. Post-season NFL games officiated by Ray Dodez


 * 1974 AFC Championship Game, Pittsburgh Steelers at Oakland Raiders, December 29, 1974
 * 1975 AFC Divisional Playoff Game, Baltimore Colts at Pittsburgh Steelers, December 27, 1975
 * 1976 NFC Divisional Playoff Game, Washington Redskins at Minnesota Vikings, December 19, 1976
 * 1978 NFC Wild Card Game, Philadelphia Eagles at Atlanta Falcons, December 24, 1978
 * 1979 AFC Divisional Playoff Game, Miami Dolphins at Pittsburgh Steelers, December 20, 1979
 * 1981 NFC Divisional Playoff Game, NY Giants at San Francisco 49ers, January 3, 1982
 * 1982 Pro Bowl, February 6, 1983
 * 1983 AFC Championship Game, Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Raiders, January 8, 1984
 * 1984 AFC Playoff, Seattle Seahawks at Miami Dolphins, December 30, 1984
 * 1984 Super Bowl XIX, Miami Dolphins vs San Francisco 49ers, January 20, 1985
 * 1986 AFC Divisional Playoff, New England Patriots at Denver Broncos, January 4, 1987
 * 1987 AFC Divisional Playoff, Houston Oilers at Denver Broncos, January 10, 1988
 * 1988 AFC Wild Card Game, Houston Oilers at Cleveland Browns, December 24, 1988
 * 1989 Pro Bowl, February 4, 1990
 * 1990 NFC Divisional Playoff game Chicago Bears at New York Giants, January 13, 1991

Controversial Calls
In 22 years working for the AFL and NFL, Dodez officiated about 450 games and made several thousand penalty calls. Review of controversial calls using Instant Replay was not adopted by the NFL until 1986, and even this system did not eliminate all errors. Three calls in Dodez careers were extensively covered in the national media, including one that resulted in changes in the NFL rules:

1974 AFC Championship Game, December 29, 1974 – On an 8 yard pass from Terry Bradshaw to John Stallworth, Dodez ruled incomplete pass because the receiver was out of bounds when he made the catch. The instant replay of the play showed that Stallworth did in fact make the catch in bounds. The outcome of the game was not affected.

“Holy Roller” September 10, 1978 – This was one of the most bizarre plays in NFL history that occurred in a game between the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders in 1978. With 10 seconds remaining in the game and the Raiders trailing 14-20, Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler dropped back to pass from the 14-yard-line. Chargers defensive end Fred Dean broke through the line and hit Stabler. Realizing there was nothing else he could do as the seconds ticked away, Stabler hurled the ball forward. As the ball rolled loose on the ground, Raiders running back Pete Banaszak swatted it toward the end zone. Tight end Dave Casper continued the ball’s forward motion with a kick at the five yard line and then fell on in it in the end zone for a touchdown as the clock ran out.

“I fumbled it on purpose,” Stabler admitted honestly after the game. “Yes, I was trying to fumble.”

Despite a protest from the Chargers sideline, referee Jerry Markbreit ruled it a legal play. Kicker Errol Mann added the extra point and the Raiders won the game, 21-20. Ray Dodez was the Line Judge who made the call.

Markbreit’s decision to uphold the play was absolutely correct by the rules in place at the time. However, that would soon change. During the off-season, the league added a provision to the rule book about fumbles after the two-minute warning that allows only the player who fumbled the ball to advance it.

1988 AFC Wild Card Playoff, December 24, 1988 --Houston Oilers at Cleveland Browns. Quarterback Warren Moon of Houston threw a backwards pass to running back Allen Pinkett that rolled on the ground and appears to be a fumble. Linebacker Clay Matthews of Cleveland picks up the loose ball and returns it for an apparent touchdown. The instant replay official rules backwards pass and touchdown. Dodez was Line Judge, and inadvertently blew his whistle and killed the play before Matthews picked up the ball.

Personal
Dodez died on April 25, 1995, when Ray’s wife Jacqueline obtained permission from the National Football League to have the NFL logo inscribed on Ray Dodez’ headstone.

Dodez was a member of the Covenent Presbyterian Church, the Columbus Downtown Optimist Club, the Professional Football Officials Association, the Ohio Football Association, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, the National Football League Referees Association (NFLRA), and the Masonic Lodge. He was married to Jacqueline Ann Zahler in 1952,and had three children Debra (1952), Robert (1953), and James (1958).