2025 INDUCTEE – Don Widner

By David Elwell
The Decatur Daily

In 1979, Widner embarked on a side career as a high school official that has now crossed the 40-year mark for both basketball and football. In 2000, the National Federation Officials Association named Widner the Alabama football official of the year. The Alabama High School Athletic Association honored Widner in 2020 with the Greg Brewer Distinguished Service Award. Widner has worked numerous playoff games in both sports, including six football state championship games. He continues to help the game working instruction camps and serving as an officer in several officials’ associations.

It’s the first Friday night of the high school football season.

Two rival teams are on the field preparing for the 7 p.m. kickoff.

The players and coaches are anxious for what’s ahead. It’s the first big test to see if all the work from the weight room in January to summer workouts and preseason practice will pay off.

The fans are making their way to their seats. The student sections are filling up. The marching bands make their entrances inside the stadium. The home team band finds its way to the field to add to the pageantry of the night with the national anthem.

Down on the field in the middle of all this excitement is an officiating crew. While their shirts are simple black and white stripes, the officials have a complicated role in keeping all this energy under control.

Somewhere on one of the football fields in the Morgan County area there will be an officiating crew led by Don Widner.

“There’s just nothing like being at a high school football game,” Widner said. “The closer it gets to kickoff, the more exciting it gets. Being there puts me in my happy place.”

Widner will be inducted into the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame on May 3 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Decatur.

When Widner is at his “happy place” he’s the referee in charge of the group of officials. He’s the one wearing the white hat.

This fall the Cullman County native will mark his 44^th season as a football official. He got his start officiating 46 years ago as a basketball official.

In 2000, the National Federation Officials Association named Widner the Alabama football official of the year. In 2020, the Alabama High School Athletic Association honored Widner with the Greg Brewer Distinguished Service Award for his 40-plus years of service.

“Why do I do it? I can’t sit still. I have to always be doing something,” Widner said.

The length of service and the career honors make Widner one of the most recognized officials in the business.

“Don Widner is a great man who happens to be a great official,” said fellow official Leonard Morris. “He cares about the players, the coaches and the game.

“It’s a privilege to be with him because he’s so cool, calm and collected. Nothing rattles him.”

Widner, 78, grew up a sports fan, but having the opportunity to make a name for himself on the football field or basketball court never happened.

“My parents were farmers and I spent a lot of my time helping on the farm,” Widner said. “It was extremely hard work. I spent a lot of time picking cotton, chopping cotton and picking beans.

“We did it the old fashioned way without the modern equipment like they use today. This was in the 1950s and 1960s.”

The 1965 Hanceville High graduate didn’t exactly have the size or muscle that one might associate with being athletic. On graduation day he was 5-foot-10 and weighed just 147 pounds.

“After high school I went into the Army for three years and during that time I hit my growth spurt,” Widner said. “When I left the Army, I was 6-2, 190 pounds.”

After leaving the Army in 1969, Widner decided to settle down in Decatur. He was working for Mock Distributing and a co-worker talked him into going to see the Decatur Red Raiders play basketball.

“He knew a couple of the officials at the game and we started talking with them,” Widner said. “They talked about officiating and I started thinking that I might be interested in doing that.

“I asked ‘how do you become an official?’ and they said go to a meeting, take the test and get certified. That’s how it started.”

Widner worked numerous high school basketball playoff games over the years. Today, a lot of his basketball officiating is for recreation, junior high or junior varsity games.

“Two years later I was waiting on a customer at Mock and he mentioned he officiated football games. I told him that I did basketball games. He said ‘you need to sign up to do football games’ and that’s how that happened.”

Widner’s long list of regular season and playoff football games includes six state championship games and one North-South All-Star game.

“The key to being a good official is a whole lot of common sense,” Widner said. “You also need to treat people, coaches and players with respect. If you do that, they will respect you.”

According to Morris, the respect is evident as soon as Widner’s crew enters the field.

“Working a game with him is like going somewhere with your father,” Morris said. “He’s earned the respect of so many coaches. When you are on his crew you just have to do your job. He’ll take care of the rest.”

Back in the day, Widner enjoyed working both basketball and football evenly, but these days the edge goes to football because of the pace of the game.

“Basketball is constant movement. Football is 10 seconds of action followed by 40 seconds until the ball is snapped. That’s more my speed these days,” Widner said.

Football also offers the opportunity to work with a larger crew and develop more camaraderie and friendships. Football officials often eat together before traveling to a game together. Younger officials have the opportunity to see one of the state’s best at work. In a time when there is a constant shortage of officials, mentorship from a veteran can make a difference.

Morris recalls working a game with Widner when the action got heated late in the game with late hits followed by personal fouls on both sides.

“Don called timeout and called both teams together at the middle of the field,” Morris said. “He said ‘We are not going to let this game end like this. Show class and play the game the right way.’ After that we had no more problems.”

Looking back at his long career as an official, Widner admits to a little secret. Because he had never played football, he didn’t know the rules of the game.

“I didn’t understand the strategy or know most of the rules,” Widner said. “I had to do a lot of reading, studying and watching.

“We have to take a rules test before every season. The goal is to make 100 and I’ve done that, but I’ve never made less than 94. I’m proud of that.”

Because of some of the comments officials hear coming out of the stands these days, it might be wise for fans to learn the rules.

“Most people don’t understand that the rules for high school, college and pro football are not all the same,” Widner. “What you see called on Saturday or Sunday, doesn’t necessarily apply to what you see on Friday.”

According to a release in 2022 from the National Federation of High School Sports, there were 41 major rules that are different in high school and college.

So how much longer will Widner be wearing the white cap on Friday nights?

“I’ve been blessed with great health,” Widner said. “Like I said, I can’t sit still. I’ve got to always be doing something. I can’t think of anywhere else to be on Friday nights.”