This Day in Hockey History – December 14, 1985 – Wicks Refs

Dec 14, 2018

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A professional career spanning 26 years with some time spent down in the AHL and other minor leagues before getting a big break during Stanley Cup playoffs and then permanently joining the NHL with expansion opening up more teams. It sounds like the career of a hockey player, but this was the timeline for a linesman turned referee, Ron Wicks. His fellow referee, Bruce Hood, may have reffed 1,000 games first, but Wicks outlasted him. On December 14, 1985, Wicks refereed his 1,034th regular-season game in the NHL. At the Met Center, the Minnesota North Stars and Toronto Maple Leafs tied 6-6. Wicks called three minor penalties on the visiting Maple Leafs and five on the North Stars, so he probably was not very popular that night.

Wicks chose refereeing early on, as he said, “I realized I had a lack of talent as a player. But reffing allowed me to stay involved in hockey.” He explained, “There were no referees’ clinics in those days. You just got yourself a rule book, tied on the skates and went out and did the job. On the ice I was the referee, both linesmen, both goal judges, and game and penalty timekeeper. There was no passing the buck.”

Having just turned 20, Wicks became the youngest official in the NHL when he worked as a linesman during an October 1960 game at Madison Square Garden. For most of the 1960s, Wick refereed in the American Hockey League (AHL), the Central Hockey League (CHL), and the Western Hockey League (WHL). Though he was brought up to serve as linesman during the 1964 Stanley Cup playoffs. With the 1967 expansion, Wicks jumped up to the NHL full time.

In his autobiography, Wicks laid out his philosophy. “I put them [NHL stars], and hundreds of others, in the penalty box because they deserved it. Rules are rules, and I called ’em whenever anyone broke ’em.” However, he also realized, “The rule book is just a guide. If you called the game by the book, you’d be the only guy left on the ice. Officiating is a very unscientific profession.”

As Wicks hit the ripe old age of 45, the NHL began training his replacement. As one Washington Post article about NHL referees stated, “There is no mandatory retirement age, but by 45 most referees show signs of slowing down and are phased out as gracefully as possible.” Thus, in 1986, the NHL had 11 full-time referees, 3 being trained to replace Wicks and two others, and 21 full-time linesmen. As Wicks’ last hurrah, he refereed the All-Star game on February 4, 1986 held at Hartford. The cover of his memoir features a photo of him dropping the puck to Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux at that game. When he retired at the end of the season, he held the record for most NHL games officiated (1,400 regular-season, 175 playoff, 5 finals, and 3 All-Star).

Wicks was inducted into the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame and the Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame before he passed away in 2016.