SPRINGDALE
Bill Carver took the day before he called his final high school football game to think about any stunt he could pull on referee James Brookhart and the other officials in his crew.
The Elm Springs resident had no idea the joke was on him this time.
Brookhart told the other officials during their pregame meeting last weekend that he feared things between Shiloh Christian and Broken Bow, Okla., were going to get out of hand, but he “had an idea.” He mentioned he had a “ringer,” then stepped out of the locker room they used to dress and prepare for the game.
He returned moments later with the “ringer” — Carver’s son, Mel, who flew in from Juneau, Alaska, unbeknown to his dad, to help call the game. The reaction when Mel walked in the room was packed with emotion as father and son embraced for a while before the crew returned to their pregame details.
“It was priceless,” Mel Carver said. “It was a pretty special moment. It was something that myself and the rest of the crew had planned since May, maybe even earlier than that.
“I was surprised that everybody kept their mouths shut and were able to pull it off. I told James it will be a tearful moment. For me to come in here and surprise him on his last game, I knew it was going to be emotional.”
Going Out Ahead
Bill Carver, 68, registered as a basketball official and worked his first game in 1980. He then branched out to football in 1990, and worked both sports for a number of years.
It wasn’t until about a year to 18 months ago he thought it was time to hand over his whistle and yellow flag.
“I could tell I had some issues,” he said. “And I’m the type of person that I thought if I ever got to the point where I was going be a hindrance to the game or a hindrance to the crew I was working with, then I would retire.
“I don’t want to be in a situation where I can’t do a good job on the field. I think I’m reaching that point. I haven’t got there yet, but honestly I don’t want to reach it. I see it coming. I want to quit early and not ever get there.”
It wasn’t the first time he had stepped away as an official. Carver, who was also an Arkansas State Trooper for 34 years before he retired in 2003, had a position change “around 2000,” and it didn’t allow him to work games at the same time.
The hiatus lasted until 2006, when another position change allowed him to resume the official’s role again. He eventually joined Brookhart and his crew.
“Bill came to our crew and we worked a championship game in 2006 with a line judge named Allen Roper,” Brookhart said. “Allen moved out of the area, and Mark Johnson said ‘We have Carver over here.’ So we approached Bill about it, and he was fired up about it.
“Because he was a state trooper, he’s able to work with the public and interacts so well. You can imagine the situations a state trooper is in, and some of them are heated, very emotional. So you get out on a football field and it’s like ‘this is pretty easy.’ One of the great things about Bill is knowing that if anything comes our way, he’s going to be able to handle it.”
The highlight of Carver’s tenure with Brookhart’s crew was clearly in 2009, when they went to Little Rock and worked the Class 5A State Championship.
Monticello completed an undefeated season with a convincing 38-7 victory over Camden Fairview, but what Carver remembers most about the game is how the crew performed that Friday night in December.
“In my mind, it was a perfect game,” Carver said. “Of course, there isn’t a perfect game in officiating, but when we walked off that field, we were walking above the grounds because we knew we did a bang-up job. I’ll always remember that game.
“We had a great time, and there are other games I’ve officiated where I felt good about them. You also know when you come off the field and you haven’t done a great job because you’ll remember that too. That’s the nature of how officiating is.”
Joker At Large
Carver’s official duty was line judge, but he also had an unofficial role. He was the prankster, and he felt it was his duty to keep everybody as loose as possible.
Brookhart quickly learned about Carver’s uncanny ability during a 2007 game in Fort Smith between Northside and Fayetteville. It was Brookhart’s first Class 7A game — as well as his first as a referee — and Carver’s antics helped him get rid of any nervousness that came with it.
“I come into the locker room, and I’m as tight as a drum,” Brookhart said. “Bill starts goofing off and trying to spill off this tight energy. He puts on a T-shirt, and to this day I don’t know what he put on the T-shirt, and I’m like ‘I can’t believe you’re treating this situation like this.’ Little did I know until later that was a good thing.
“We get into the game, and he had a flag on a coach out of bounds. I come over to get the foul call from Bill, and asked ‘What have you got?’ And Bill looks at me and said “I’ve got a coach over here calling us a bunch of cheaters, and I’m not going to take that.’ I said ‘all right,’ and all I could do was laugh.”
The pranks weren’t confined to the gridiron and the locker room. The biggest one Carver pulled took place on a return trip from Jessieville, which had become a yearly tradition for the crew.
Brookhart, who was the driver, was also the victim. Carver had arranged everything with a fellow state trooper, who pulled over the crew moments and grilled Brookhart after the crew crossed the Arkansas River bridge between Russellville and Dardanelle.
“It took me about two years to get it all set up,” Carver said. “But it was worth it. Mark Johnson knew about it because he could hear me on my cell phone. We just couldn’t stand it; we were laughing. It was good guys having a good time.”
One Last Game, One Big Stunt
Brookhart said his crew decided at the end of last season to let the elder Carver come back one more time instead of end his career at that point.
“It would be a lot more special to Bill if we took it and did it this way,” Brookhart said. “The beginning of the season is a lot more predictable, the weather is a lot better and you’re able to arrange some things that you wouldn’t normally do near the end of the season. So it lined up really well.”
It also allowed them to work Mel Carver into the celebration. The younger Carver, who works with the US Forest Service in Juneau, had planned to come down and watch the game, but crew member Mark Gay suggested that father and son work together.
The stage was set, and Mel Carver — who hadn’t called a game since 2008 — was more than willing to do his part.
“I had to register with the Arkansas Officials Association to work one game, and I did that in August,” Mel said. “I basically had to send in an application and my fees to register.
“Of course, you still have to take the football test, and I will go ahead and do that to finish out the process. But it’s a real simple process, especially if you have done it before.”
Mel jumped aboard a late-night flight from Juneau to Seattle, where he grabbed 4 hours of sleep before boarding a plane for Minneapolis. He landed at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport about 3 hours before the game started — enough time for Brookhart to pick him up, take him to Shiloh Christian and hide him away before the pregame meeting.
He also pulled a stunt to keep his dad totally unaware of what was about to take place.
“What I did was ask my son Kyle if Shiloh streamed their games,” Mel said. “It takes him about 2.5 seconds to find it where it would take me about 5-10 minutes. So I told him to take it to the big screen so he could watch it on Friday night.
“I took that information to let Pops know he we’re going to ‘watch it.’ My family did watch the game, but unbeknown to him that I was going to be there.”
Still Part Of The Crew
Bill Carver may have blown his last whistle and thrown his last yellow flag, but he doesn’t have to depart from football or from Brookhart’s crew.
In fact, Brookhart has given him “a standing invitation” any time he wants to travel to a game, and Carver said he may take them up on the offer on a regular basis.
“Even though I’m not officiating, I may go with him,” Carver said. “I may get a clipboard, walk the sidelines and chart the fouls, tell them how terrible they missed that call.
“I’m not going to be away from that permanently. I may not go every Friday night, but some of the bigger games I might say I would like to go because I’ll be a part of this crew. That’s the way I feel, and I’m sure they feel the same way.”
PROFILE
Bill Carver
AGE: 68
RESIDENCE: Elm Springs
NOTABLE: Began working as a basketball official in 1980, then took up officiating football games in 1990. … Had been a part of James Brookhart’s crew since 2007, and together they worked the Class 5A State Championship between Monticello and Camden Fairview in 2009. … Retired from the Arkansas State Police in 2003, where he had worked for 34 years and was known as the person who tackled the streaker during the Arkansas-Ole Miss game in 2002.