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The next time Jim Wall attends a high school football game, his hanky will be used only to mop his brow or blow his nose. No more tossing it into the air, then stepping off penalty yardage.

Wall, the retired minister of Siler City’s First Baptist Church and a former longtime pastor at Greensboro’s Lindley Park Baptist Church, officiated his last game on Nov. 6 at Northeast Guilford High School.

He has worn referee’s stripes and blown a whistle for 45 years, more than 500 games.

Northeast gave him the game ball to acknowledge his dedication to high school football.

Earlier in the 2009 season, other schools presented him with school hats and other tokens of appreciation. They knew he was a zebra who tried as hard as any player to do his best, despite the occasional controversial call.

Tempers occasionally flare on the field and on the sidelines, but Wall says good sportsmanship dominates. If any two teams despise one other, it’s probably Page and Grimsley. But not really, or so Wall found when he officiated at their game in October.

“I was impressed with the coaches, the athletic directors and the teams, who shook hands and talked with each other,” he says. “The whole game was one of the best I had been in.”

Knowing that Wall is a Baptist minister may have caused some coaches to soften their language.

Besides, Wall looks as menacing as some of the players. In the late 1950s, he played football, first for Bob Jamieson at what’s now Grimsley High School and later graduated from Wake Forest. During more than 45 years as a referee, he ejected only two coaches, he says, who “just went overboard.”

He says coaches don’t want their players or assistants screaming at the refs. This could mean a costly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Coaches often asked him before games to report any player causing problems, he says. “I think high school football is a very clean, hard-fought game.”

Wall officiated his first game as a student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest.

In those days, teams rarely passed, heeding former Duke coach Wallace Wade’s warning that only three things can happen with a pass, and two of the three are bad. (Those being, of course, an incomplete pass and an interception.)

Today, teams throw often and long. Wall is thankful he didn’t have to guard modern-day receivers. They are so much faster.

Long ago, schools rarely dared to attempt field goals. Now, splitting the uprights from 40 to 45 yards is not uncommon. He credits the improvement to soccer players joining football teams and to players specializing in kicking.

Today’s players are bigger and stronger, too. They pump iron year-round. Wall doesn’t remember ever lifting weights in high school.

He’s also impressed with coaches, who learned under other talented coaches in high school and college, and he gives credit to referees, who make fewer mistakes.

In the old days, refs were allowed to call games simply because they had an interest in high school sports. Now, they must attend local and state clinics, study rule books and call at least three pre-season scrimmage games. They stay in shape, and ref crews strive to work as a team.

The best player Wall ever saw wasn’t on a football team. During his first 20 years, Wall also officiated at basketball and baseball games. During a basketball contest involving Shelby’s Crest High, future N.C. State and pro player David Thompson put on an incredible performance.

“He was one of the finest I’ve ever seen in high school,” says Wall, who called games in the Shelby area where he was a pastor.

Wall and his wife, the former Sarah Jo Cates, who grew up across from Grimsley High School, have two children. Both are Grimsley grads, who later went to Gardner-Webb University, where son Josh was a cheerleader. Josh is now learning refereeing and worked alongside his dad during the Grimsley game.

Now, Wall will start using his eagle eye on referees instead of players.

He’s one of four designated to give clinics in the North State refereeing conference, the state’s largest. He also starts promising young refs out by booking them for Guilford County high school junior varsity games.

Contact Jim Schlosser at 601-9879 or beale1@clearwire.net