Before sports referees donned the zebra streak we know so well today , many present up to game in some mutation of this spiffyensemble : white garb shirt and slacks , calamitous bow association , and blank flat pileus .
The uniform made officials seem official , but it was n’t quite decided enough to lay them asunder from the players during fast - pace gameplay . When one of the squad was also wearing white , thing could get perplexing . An Eastern Michigan University ( EMU ) student refer Lloyd W. Olds experienced this outlet at first hand while officiating high school basketball game in 1914 . “ The referee often looked very much like a player , so the lads often drop the ball to me or bounced it off my heading , ” he laterrecalled .
By 1920 , Olds had startedrefereeingfootball in the area , too . After a quarterback from a white - clad team accidentally passed him the ball during one game , Olds finally resolve he was long delinquent for a costume change . He collaborated with an Ann Arbor sports shop owner named George Moe on a knit shirt with black and white vertical stripes , which he wore for the first time in 1921 . It was n’t an immediate success;according toThe New York Times , fans in reality boo him from the stand . “ I hold plenty of ribbing when I first appeared in it , ” Oldssaid , “ but the idea hitch on among both basketball and football officials . ”
Olds went on to become something of an athletic legend at Eastern Michigan University ( knownas the Michigan State Normal College until the late 1950s ) . Hecoachedthe university ’s track and cross - country teams for 25 years , served as an assistant track coach for the U.S.Olympicteam in 1932 and 1936 , and develop EMU ’s intramural program into a vivacious part of campus life history .
But his farthest - reaching accomplishment is , without a doubt , the sartorial origination that has keep officials from being misguided for undetermined teammate for 100 year and counting . contraband and clean bar are now worn by referee infootball , basketball , hockey game , lacrosse , wrestling , and more .
[ h / tThe New York Times ]
