A tribute to Bob Sandell

by Jerry Ratcliffe on February 1st, 2011

As you might imagine, there are so many stories about former Virginia lacrosse coach and ACC official Bob Sandell, there wasn’t enough space in the print edition of the paper to fit them all. But those stories need to be shared, so this is a perfect place to publish them.

Sandell passed away at age 83 last Friday after fighting the good fight against cancer. It’s difficult to believe that Bob actually worked a lacrosse game with John Busch only two years ago, but that’s what Bob Sandell was all about.

In today’s “Crunch Time” blog, we will showcase thoughts from several who knew him, loved him, worked alongside him and were inspired by him (see Tuesday’s column on Sandell if you missed it).

One of the great stories about Sandell was from the late 1960s when he actually threw then-UVa lacrosse player Al Groh, out of the game for fighting. The two went on to become great friends. Before we go onward with that story, we would be remiss if we didn’t correct the story about Sandell being called out of the stands to officate a UVa basketball game in the early 1980s (Tuesday’s column). It was actually a UVa game vs. Georgetown and Coach John Thompson.

For those who missed it, game officials were snowbound and couldn’t get to Charlottesville, so UVa administrators knew Sandell was in the crowd and asked him to ref the game. Sandell explained that he had enjoyed a couple of pre-game beers. Apparently all was well when Thompson allegedly said, “Bob Sandell on two beers is better than most officials sober.“ The game played on without incident as Sandell rode to the rescue once again.

Now, for the Groh ejection and other stories:

Reached in Georgia on Monday, Groh was saddened to learn of his good friend, Sandell’s passing. However, he loved sharing this tale about the aformentioned encounter.

Groh was in his eighth semester of classes at UVa, had finished football the previous November and had been recruited by Cavaliers’ lacrosse coach Gene Corrigan to come out for the team that spring.

“I played on one of the historically bad Virginia lacrosse teams and one of the reasons it was bad was because I was playing on it,“ Groh chuckled. “Corrigan, as coaches will do, very accurately assessed the talent, or in that particular case, the lack of talent on this team and needed some reenforcements. He was working on myfriends who were lacrosse players, asking, ‘Why don’t you get Groh to come out.‘“

Groh did come out and admitted that his stickwork was less than sophisticated. In fact, he jokes, he could probably have done just as well playing with an oar. At that time in lacrosse there was a designated crease defensemen, whose job was basically to move all the offensive players out of the crease so that the goalie wasn’t shielded, or to physically take on anybody who tried to penetrate the area.

“The way I would think of it now is, I was kind of a designated goon,“ Groh laughed.

“We were playing Yale in Scott Stadium on a Saturday afternoon and right after the lacrosse game, there was going to be a football scrimmage. All my former teammates were sitting around the restraining lines with their shoulder pads and helmets by their sides, waiting for their scrimmage to start,“ said Groh, now the defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech. “The ball gets down in our end and we’re having a hard time getting it out, thanks muchly to one defenseman’s inability. Finally, the ball was rolling toward midfield, away from our goal. The Yale player is chasing the ball and I’m chasing the Yale player.“

When the Yale player reached to scoop the ball, Groh used his longstick, clamping his opponent’s stick to the ground so the ball couldn’t be scooped. Apparently the Yale player took offense and rammed his stick back over his shoulder, hitting Groh right above the eye socket. Having been viciously fouled, Groh responded.

“I don’t remember any thought process that triggered it, but the Yale player was on his back and I was sraddling him, pounding him,“ Groh remembered.

Naturally, all of his football teammates were 15 yards away, cheering Groh on.

The two game officials were Bob Sandell and Groh’s history teacher Andy Bunning (we think that spelling is correct). Corrigan, of course, had a strict no fighting rule.

“I get thrown out of the game, Corrigan is mad and I’m banished to the end of the bench or the showers, I can’t remember,“ Groh said. “The next day, a Sunday morning, myself and three other guys, seniors and football teammates of mine all living in the same house on Rugby Road decide to get something to eat. Well, Bob Sandell owned the Dairy Queen not too far down the hill. Sure enough, Bob was behind the window. My eye was swollen shut like I had gone five rounds with Mike Tyson. I went up to the window and said, ‘Mr. Sandell, I just wanted to show you I didn’t start that fight yesterday.‘

“Bob said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. If I had known .... oh, my gosh.‘

“Turns out that Bob felt so bad about throwing me out of the game that he said, ‘Well, what do you want? A hamburger, a vanilla milkshake. Whatever you want, you can have,‘“ Groh chuckled. “I got thrown out fo the game but I got a free lunch.“

Groh and Sandell were close ever after.

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Doug Tarring, the former lacrosse coach at St. Anne’s-Belfield, and a former UVa national championship lacrosse player, who also officiated college lacrosse with Sandell, shared many thoughts about his longtime friend.

“The things I think mostly of about Bob are humility, generosity and integrity,“ Tarring said. “Bob could walk into an empty room and within 10 minutes, everybody would be talking to him. He was so genuine to everybody. He was a great mentor to a lot of us, officiating and coaching. Just being around Bob at a Final Four or a coaches convention, anything like that, people wanted to be around him because he was such a great man.“

So many area coaches and officials like Busch, Tarring, Todd Hawkins and others, always marveled at how a guy that called hundreds of ACC football and lacrosse games, major college bowl games and the like, would give up a day, even in his 70’s and actually as late as age 81, to go drive to a high school junior varsity game just so the kids would have an official to call their games.

“Bob was always embarrassed when people tried to honor or recognize him,“ Tarring said. “We had a nice party for him a few weeks ago, a surprise party. Even then he was very touched. Bob was a crier, but that was Bob. He never wanted anyone to make a big fuss over him. But he was always someone to come forward when someone else needed a favor or help.“

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Jim “Ace” Adams, has been a lifelong friend and former teammate of Sandell’s. They went to third grade together, played lacrosse together for 12 years, including national championship runs at Johns Hopkins, and ended up in Charlottesville, Adams as UVa’s head lacrosse coach and Sandell as a highly-respected ACC official.

“I prefer to think of Bob as a young fellow, cotton white hair, blue eyes and a suntanned complexion, a pug nose, just a cut young boy,“ Adams said. “He was just a really nice fellow and everybody took to him very easily.“

Adams said that Sandell made the Southern Lacrosse Officials Association into a very competent group whereas before the officiating had been “hit or miss.“ Sandell tutored so many, some that have gone on to call national championship games.

“Bob was a natural. He was just very good. He knew the rules, knew how to apply them, how to handle players and coaches,“ Adams said. “When he made a call, it wasn’t guesswork.“

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Todd Hawkins, local lacrosse official

“After I got out of TV, I knew immediately that I wanted to give officating a try because I had seen Dave Wyant on the sidelines while I was covering the Washington Redskins,“ said Hawkins, a former NBC-29 sports reporter. “So, I first met Bob Sandell while doing football in the fall of ‘97 (after knowing of him as a high school ref when I played, and as a ring salesman for Jostens). When he found out I had played lacrosse and had an interest in the sport, he began his soft sell way of getting me out to do lacrosse officiating, too.

“I officated lacrosse for 11 years and I quit the year after Bob left,“ Hawkins said. “The running joke among all of us is that you culd never say ‘no’ to Bob because he worked so many games himself and you knew he wouldn’t ask you do do something that he wouldn’t do. We all joked that telling Bob ‘no’ was like dissing Mother Theresa, so it wasn’t uncommon to work a game(s) with hardly any notice. Bob would call late night, even hours before a game clear across the state. I once worked five games in one day.

The last game that day was Woodberry against Georgetown Prep at UVa Turf and I really stunk it up,“ Hawkins continued. “I should’ve said no because I was tired and bad. Bob was such a nice man, nobody had the heart to let him down.“

Hawkins will never forget his very first game, and it was a similar story that several lacrosse officials noted about working their first lax game with the veteran Sandell.

“We were on our way to my first game (at Blue Ridge) and as Bob was telling stories, whipping around the curves in Greene County on our way to Dyke, I expressed to him that I felt I knew the rules but wasn’t confident about what exactly to do, when or where to stand on the field. I remember as if it were yesterday, Bob teaching me, ‘If you ever get confused or forget anything in a game, just DO THE RIGHT THING and you’ll be fine.‘

“In other words, make it up and make it equitable,“ Hawkins said. “Not only has that stuck with me, but it applies to life in general and I’ll be teaching that to my kids, too.“

Hawkins said he was so sad at Sandell’s passing that it felt like losing a grand parent.

“One last rememberance, of a story he told often, about his very first ACC football game,“ Hawkins said. “Bob said he took the train to Duke!.“

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Jerry Ratcliffe,

I never heard that particular story but hopefully someone will pass it along. Bob shared a lot of stories with this reporter and he was a great story teller.

For the last several years, I really enjoyed having a pre-game meal at our “roundtable,“ at Scott Stadium prior to football games along with a couple of Sandell’s true running mates, Dick “Dark Cloud” Engle and Ray “Mister” Hogan. Bob would entertain us all with his stories and was never shy about expressing his opinions on any number of topics.

We shall miss him.

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