Glass shares of life in OSU’s replay booth

By Greg Gulas | February 8, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

BOARDMAN

For more than 50 years, Dr. Larry Glass has been an area dentist and someone who realizes that perfection is the prerequisite if you expect a patient’s return visit.

His avocation as a football official and Big Ten replay official, however, is an area where realized a long time ago that he had to start out perfect and then get better if he expected to stick with game that he loves.

Speaking to the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s weekly luncheon meeting at the Blue Wolf Banquet Center, Glass shed some light on his duties as one of the three replay officials in the booth for Ohio State University home football games.

“When I started out as a replay official, I wasn’t exactly a big fan of adding that overall component,” Glass said.

“When an official is right 98 percent of the time, I just wasn’t sold on adding new technology to the game.

“After leaving the field though, I gravitated to the press box in 2004 and although it took a good two and a half years to sell me on replay, I have now become a believer in how it has helped with crucial calls and in critical situations,” Glass said.

There are three individuals in the replay booth for every Buckeyes home game.

Glass is the communicator and Tom Ransom is the head replay official. They are joined by a technician.

“We have four television sets that give us the necessary angles when reviewing a play,” Glass said.

“Two give us the angles, one is the network feed and the other is equipped with TiVo so that we can go back and forth with a play when necessary.

“We meet approximately three hours prior to the game with the officials and television crew, but once completed we head to the press box where we are sequestered in our booth,” Glass said.

“Protection is provided by either the Ohio State Highway Patrol or Game Day Security the entire game.

“We then head back to the officials’ locker room after the game for about an hour to go over their performance, also providing them with a DVD of the game,” Glass said.

Glass received his officiating card in 1951 and started out on the high school level, later spending 22 years as a Mid-American Conference and Big Ten official.

He was chosen to work the Peach Bowl, Hall of Fame Bowl, Stagg Bowl and Garden State Bowl.

He later served on the Division III level as the Ohio Athletic Conference Head of Football Officials.

Next week, Marilyn O’Bruba, YSU athletics academic adviser, will speak.