Saturday, Oct. 29, 2005 | 9:43 a.m.
Football officials are like magicians in that they don't talk shop very much, especially to outsiders. So don't expect Marc Ratner to engage in a lengthy discourse on whether Reggie Bush pushing USC teammate Matt Leinart over the goal line at Notre Dame two weeks ago was a legal play.
But he can confirm it happened. Last Saturday, just seven days after the most memorable college football game of the new millennium, Ratner could still see the imprint of Leinart's body in the shaggy grass in the end zone.
Ratner, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission who moonlights as a Mountain West Conference football official, was part of the officiating crew assigned to last week's Brigham Young vs. Notre Dame game at South Bend, Ind.
Having grown up idolizing Paul Hornung -- the original Golden Boy, as Ratner constantly reminds Oscar De La Hoya -- he said patrolling the sideline at venerable Notre Dame Stadium as a line judge was the thrill of a lifetime.
"I have officiated close to 150 Division One college football games, including bowl games," Ratner said upon returning from Indiana, where the Fighting Irish throttled the Cougars 49-23. "I can say now that it was the most exhilarating experience I have ever had as a football official."
It was even more special in that Ratner is retiring as an on-field official after this season. Next year, he will move to the press box as a replay booth official.
After spending a few hours at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend on Friday and checking out the Fighting Irish trophy case with all those Heisman Trophy replicas at the Joyce Center on the Notre Dame campus, Ratner asked for an early wake-up call Saturday.
Normally, the officials aren't expected to report for duty until three hours before kickoff. Ratner arrived four hours early, hoping to soak in all the pomp and pageantry he could.
"Nobody was there except me and one other guy, so a security guard asked if I wanted to go into the locker room and look around," Ratner said.
That would be the home locker room. The one with the golden helmets hanging from their hooks.
Later, Ratner was assigned the task of informing Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis when NBC wanted the Irish to run onto the field.
Then it was time to go up the stairs to the tunnel, where 81,000 fans were waiting to hear the Notre Dame marching band play that famous Victory March.
Cue the goose bumps.
"In the hallway, I saw all those Rockne speeches and that banner says 'Play Like A Champion Today,' which all the players hit before they run onto the field. So I hit it, too," Ratner said.
"Then you're in the tunnel and notice that Coach Weis is just a couple of steps behind you and the Notre Dame team is behind him. You take a couple of steps and the roar of 81,000 envelops you.
"I felt like Rudy."
Ratner said that while running onto the field ahead of the Fighting Irish made the hair on his neck stand up, once the game started it was pretty much like any of the 150 others he has officiated.
Well, except for one play in the second half.
"Before the game, Coach Weis told me, 'I want you to know I'm gonna yell at you and call you some names,' " Ratner said. "Then in the third quarter he called me some names."
Ratner said Weis was upset that an intentional grounding call didn't go Notre Dame's way.
"I walked away, and he smiled. He said he knew I couldn't see intentional grounding on the other side of the field."
Ratner said it was a long game -- three hours, 46 minutes -- and it was pretty chilly after the sun dipped below the rim of the stadium. Still, he wouldn't have minded if the game went to an overtime or two.
"The most amazing emotion was when the game was over and the band was done playing and the (officiating) crew was way ahead of me in leaving and I stayed around," Ratner said.
He walked onto the field in the vicinity of the 10-yard line, where Hornung and Lujack and Lattner had roamed, where not-so-ordinary Joes such as Theismann and Montana had rallied the lads on their way to the end zone in so many big games against Michigan State and Purdue and those darn Trojans.
"Tears welled up in my eyes," Ratner said without the slightest bit of embarrassment.
Hearing the echoes will do that to a guy. Even one who wears a striped shirt.
