Tommy Bell (American football official), Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetTommy Bell (American football official)
American football official
Date of Birth: 02-Jul-1922
Date of Death: 20-Feb-1986
Profession: referee
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Cancer 
About Tommy Bell (American football official)
- Tommy Bell (July 2, 1922 – February 20, 1986) was an American football official in the National Football League (NFL) and was regarded as "one of the NFL's most respected referees".
- When he joined the NFL as an official in 1962 from the Southeastern Conference, he was given the referee position, and stayed at that spot until his retirement in 1976.
- He officiated Super Bowl III in 1969 and Super Bowl VII in 1973.
- He is also the only official in history to referee in both a Super Bowl and NCAA Final Four (1959).
- He retired from the NFL following the 1976 AFC Championship Game between the Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers, played December 26, 1976, to conclude a fifteen-year career in the league.Bell was given a choice of officiating the AFC Championship game or Super Bowl XI as his final NFL game by then-Director of Officiating Art McNally.
- When Bell chose the former, Jim Tunney was selected as the referee for his second Super Bowl.
- His successor as a referee, Jerry Markbreit, was the line judge on Bell's crew in 1976, Markbreit's rookie year in the NFL. Bell wore uniform number 7 throughout his NFL career.
- The number was not used during the 1977 and 1978 NFL seasons; fellow referee Fred Silva took the number in 1979 and wore it through his retirement in 1988.
- Ron Blum, who wore number 83 as a line judge from 1985 through 1992, changed to No.
- 7 upon his promotion to referee in 1993 and wore it through his retirement in 2007, even though he returned to his original position for his final four NFL seasons.
- Side judge Keith Washington currently wears No.
- 7.
- Unlike nearly all other professional football officials, Bell did not have to serve an apprenticeship at another position before becoming a referee.
- He was the last official to be a referee in his rookie season until Brad Allen was hired in 2014.
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