Tom Dooley (American football)

Robert Thomas "Tom" Dooley Jr. (born September 15, 1934 in Roanoke, Virginia) was an American football official for 32 years with 14 of those years in the National Football League (NFL) from 1978 to 1992 as a line judge and referee. Dooley was assigned Super Bowl XV in 1981 as line judge. In the NFL, he wore the uniform number 6.

A native of Virginia, Dooley attended Andrew Lewis High School in Salem, Virginia where he graduated in 1952 and later attended college at the Virginia Military Institute, earning a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1956 and was a varsity football player. One year later, he earned a master's degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Between 1957 and 1960, Dooley served in the United States Air Force as a First Lieutenant.

In 1960, after completing his tour in the Air Force, Dooley began a distinguished football officiating career. From 1960 to 1977, Dooley worked both junior high and high school football games and also officiated college football games from 1966 to 1977 in the Southern Conference.

Dooley was selected to join the NFL in 1978 as a line judge before being promoted to the referee position following his appearance at Super Bowl XV for the start of the 1981 NFL season. Beginning with his Super Bowl paycheck, Dooley signed away nearly every paycheck he received from the NFL for the next 14 years, which was an amount in excess of $500,000 to a scholarship fund he created at Virginia Military Institute called "Matthew 25", http://www.naso.org/benefits/goldwhistle/tomdooley.htm named after the Biblical passage. Dooley retired from the NFL following the 1992 season in order to spend more time with his family, but continues to supply funds to the scholarship with the checks he receives from his work mediating and arbitrating construction-related problems.

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