The 55th Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame banquet, sponsored by Briarfield Health Care Centers and Ed and Diane Reese, is set for Sunday, May 5 with 12 new members set for enshrinement during ceremonies at Mr. Anthony’s Banquet Center in Boardman.
Former NFL official and current national network television rules analyst, Gene Steratore, will serve as guest speaker.
The 2024 class includes the late Sean Durkin (basketball, baseball coach), Jill Harmon (softball), Ken Kimerer (bowling), Bob LaRicca (basketball, coach), Ken Linden (all-sports award), Bill Metzinger (baseball), Terry O’Halloran (swimming & diving, coach), Kelly Pavlik (boxing), Brett Powell (wrestling, coach), Ron Strollo (contribution to sports), Cheryl Weaver (softball, coach) and Dan Yeagley (football, coach).
Steratore is considered one of the most knowledgeable and colorful officials ever to work in the National Football League and on the college hardwood.
Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania on February 8, 1963, he earned his undergraduate degree from Kent State University.
He served as an NFL official from 2003-18, was a Division I basketball referee from 1995-2018 and since the fall of 2018, has served as a rules analyst for CBS Sports, including the NFL on CBS, SEC on CBS, college basketball on CBS and CBS-Turner during its NCAA basketball March Madness coverage.
He entered the NFL as a field judge and was promoted to referee at the start of the 2006 season, one of two new referees (Jerome Boger being the other) for that season following the retirements of Bernie Kukar and Tom White.
Wearing uniform No.114, he was chosen as the alternate referee of Super Bowl XLIV (held in Miami on February 7, 2010) and was selected as referee for Super Bowl LII, played on February 4, 2018, his last game officiating.
During his time in professional football, he was one of two active NFL referees (Bill Vinovich was the other) who also officiated NCAA Division I men’s basketball games.
As an NFL official, he took over briefly as referee during a regular-season game on December 28, 2003 between the Carolina Panthers and New York Giants after Kukar, the crew chief, was injured during a play in which he was hit in the back by the Giants’ Clarence LeBlanc after a blocked punt.
He worked his first NFL playoff game as a referee between the Arizona Cardinals and the Carolina Panthers on January 10, 2009 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Exactly one year later, he refereed the Baltimore Ravens‘ 33-14 victory over the New England Patriots in an American Football Conference (AFC) wild card game at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
It is not uncommon for an official at any level to be scrutinized and during Week No. 1 of the 2010 NFL season, in a game between the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago, Steratore was on display for a call by his crew and he proved his knowledge of the game.
Late in the fourth quarter, Lions receiver Calvin Johnson caught what was originally ruled as the winning touchdown for the Lions. After this year’s guest speaker conferred with his fellow officials, he overturned the call to an incomplete pass, ruling that Johnson lost control of the ball while going to the ground before he ‘completed the process of completing the catch.’
He was supported by the NFL and backed by its former vice-president of officiating, Mike Pereira, the rule since being referred to as the ‘Calvin Johnson Rule.’
He was selected as the first referee to officiate a game following the 2012 NFL referee lockout on September 27, 2012, a Thursday-night contest between the Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens in which the Baltimore crowd cheered him and his crew as they entered the field.
Named as referee for the NFC Championship game on January 19, 2014, between the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers, he was also the referee during the NFC divisional play-off game between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers on January 11, 2015 when a fourth-quarter, fourth-down catch by Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant was overturned using the ‘Calvin Johnson rule.’ The Packers challenged the call and after review, it was determined that the ball touched the ground before Bryant completed the catch.
In a game on December 17, 2017 between the Dallas Cowboys and Oakland Raiders, he took the step of employing an index card normally used for recording penalties to assist him in determining whether the Cowboys had made the line for a first down. His ruling was that they had done so which allowed Dallas to kick a late field goal en route to their 20–17 victory.
His retirement as an NFL referee was announced by the circuit’s Senior Vice-President of Officiating, Alberto Riveron, on June 22, 2018, becoming the fourth that off-season to retire joining Ed Hochuli, Jeff Triplette and Terry McAulay.
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Following retirement, he joined CBS Sports as a rules analyst – CBS had not had a rules analyst on its staff since firing Mike Carey following the 2015 season – and in addition to providing analysis for NFL officiating, he also contributes in a similar role for the network’s college football coverage, college basketball on CBS and NCAA March Madness on CBS/TBS/TNT/truTV.
He hails from a long line of family officials as his father, Gene, Sr., was a college football official and basketball referee while his brother, Tony, also served as an NFL official, retiring after the 2021 off-season.
He resides in Washington, Pennsylvania and along with his brother is co-owner of Steratore Sanitary Supply.
Doors open at 4 p.m., dinner is set to be served at 5 p.m. with the program scheduled to commence at 6 p.m.
Individual tickets are $60 each while tables of eight are currently available for $480.
Further information can be obtained by calling 330-506-6774 or by visiting the organization’s website at www.thecurbstonecoaches.org.
