If you watch or play sports in the Mining City, you probably know Jack Hocking. We call him the Hockinator. 

Even if you did not know his name, you probably recognize him as an official of so many sports. Jack umpires baseball and softball, and he officiates basketball and football. He even officiated lacrosse for a bit.

Jack also works as an announcer at hockey games in Butte from time to time, and he runs the Muzik Your Way DJ service, so you have probably seen him in action at a game, wedding or party.

Jack started umpiring baseball when he was still playing Little League himself. He even went to a school in Florida to try to become a Major League ump. However, he suffered a serious injury during the camp, and was not selected to move on.

He could have gone back and tried again, but life kind started to happen, so he stuck around Butte.

Jack will conclude his 33rd season as an umpire Aug. 16 when he works the inaugural Montana East-West Shrine Baseball Game at Butte’s 3 Legends Stadium.

You might not always agree with the call he makes, but I can assure you that nobody works harder than Jack at learning his craft. He works at all of his sports year-round.

As an official who works so many games, Jack also knows firsthand how the shortage of sports officials is hurting the games. So, Jack is on a quest to recruit more officials.

He is even offering to pay the initial yearly Montana Official Association dues to the first two new football officials who contact him. Anyone interested in joining Butte’s football officiating pool can simply go to the first study club meeting, which will be held at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 19 at the Butte Civic Center upstairs conference room.

Then, you can learn that officiating sports isn’t as frightening as you think. In fact, as I can tell you from my experience officiating basketball with Jack and so many other great men and women, officiating is really fun. It is a great way to see the games, and it is an even better way to meet some new friends.

Seriously, the officials are not the stuffed shirts you think they are.

Hopefully, you will give it a shot and see what I mean.

Listen in to this episode to hear that Jack is also one heck of a bowler. He once bowled an 837 series, and has rolled a handful of perfect games.

Listen in to hear how Jack got into umpiring in the first place. Listen as he talks about how much he studies to make sure he is making the best call possible.

Listen in to hear that officiating just might be something you want to try.

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