McGurk officiated over 200 college football games in addition to a distinguished career as a baseball umpire and basketball official.
Kevin McGurk, left, makes a call as his son Andrew looks on.Kevin McGurk of West Springfield, a college football official for 23 years, will be honored Thursday night by the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
He is one of three recipients of the Red Hill Award, named for a longtime ECAC official who served as president of the Boston Chapter, Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Football Officials. Red Hill Awards for 2011 will also go to Angelo Scaccia of Boston and Robert Straughter of Washington, D.C.
It’s part of the annual Eastern College Football Awards banquet, set for 6 p.m. in the Chase Club of MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, N.J.
“It’s quite an honor because there are a lot of officials out there,” McGurk said. “I’m going to accept it on behalf of everybody I ever worked with. I hope I made them better, and I know they made me better.”
McGurk, 62, began his officiating career in 1971 at the high school level as a member of the Western Massachusetts Football Officials Association.
He retired from college officiating last November after working the Springfield College-Union game at Schenectady, N.Y., but will continue to officiate at the high school level.
“My last college game was special to me because I got to work it with my son, Andrew. I was the referee and Andrew was the head linesman,” McGurk said.
Andrew McGurk, a resident of Sunderland, has been officiating for five years.
Kevin McGurk has served two terms as president of the WM Football Officials Association and has been its rules interpreter for more than a decade.
He joined the Eastern Association’s Western New England Chapter as a referee in 1989, serving on the chapter’s executive board and as president in 2006.
In his college football career, he officiated more than 200 games, including NCAA and ECAC playoffs as well as Amherst-Williams, “the biggest little game in America.”
McGurk is a retired member of the College Baseball Umpires Association’s New England Chapter. He is also a lifetime member of the Western Massachusetts Baseball Umpires Association. In basketball, he holds membership in the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials, Board 31.
He has been married to his wife Susan for 40 years. The couple also has a daughter, Brenda.
Garry Brown can be reached at geeman1918@yahoo.com