Morehouse Is Home for NFL Referee and Former Maroon Tiger Jerome Boger ’77

ATLANTA, Georgia -- Sitting on the sidelines of many Morehouse Maroon Tiger basketball games you will find someone who spends most Sunday afternoons in the glare of the national spotlight.

Quietly cheering on his beloved alma mater, you'll often see 1977 Morehouse Man Jerome Boger, a veteran NFL official who has led officiating crews of some of professional football's most important games, including a Super Bowl. He is also the NFL's third-ever African American head referee after Johnny Grier and Mike Carey.

It was Boger who led the officiating crew as the referee during Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. Carey – who wore No. 23 as Boger does now – was the last African American to serve as referee during a Super Bowl.

But it all started at Morehouse. When he says he grew up on campus, he really means it as his father was a professor at the College.

"My father taught at Morehouse," he said. "I literally grew up on the campus. We stayed in Robert Hall until I was in the 8th grade when we moved off campus. So I kind of grew up around the Morehouse environment as a child."

When it came time for college, Boger had a number of choices, but there was only one institution on his mind – Morehouse.

"Morehouse was always an option for me as a place I could go to be well-educated and prepare myself to go into manhood," Boger said. "So that was big for me growing up."

"I just couldn't wait until I had the opportunity to be enrolled myself," he said. "I pretty much didn't look at any other school."

At Morehouse, Boger actually was on the field as a star, as a four-year starting quarterback for the Maroon Tigers during the 1970s. After graduation, Boger decided to stay close to the game by becoming an official, working high school and recreational league games.

He then moved up to the college level, where he officiated in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for 11 years and then five years in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. He then went to Conference USA, the Arena League and NFL Europe where he officiated World Bowl XIV.

Boger became an NFL referee in 2004 and was promoted to NFL game crew's lead official – in 2006. He now is one of the league's most respected referees.

But Morehouse is where he calls home. Seeing Boger, who lives in Conyers, Ga., on Atlanta's east side, at Morehouse events shouldn't be a surprise. After a long NFL season, it's where he calls home.

"I always equated Morehouse as being home for me," Boger said. "As a comfort zone. It was a place where I was able to watch young men mature and use some of those values in my upbringing and see that you can have the emphasis on education and on brotherhood at the same time."

"It was always in my blood, in my DNA," Boger said of Morehouse. "I always felt this was home for me."

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