Three-peat: Referee is back on mat

By MERI-JO BORZILLERI
Herald Sports Writer

Dominic, you see, has spent much of the past year on his hands and knees. So has his father, Rick.

In fact, for an adult, Rick Tucci has spent an inordinate amount of time on all fours. He's one of the world's best wrestling referees, and that position is as inherent to wrestling as an umpire's crouch is to baseball.

Pembroke Pines' Tucci, 51, will officiate his third Olympic Games this summer in Atlanta. A physical education instructor at Highland Oaks Middle School in North Miami Beach, Tucci has traveled thousands of miles in pursuit of his hobby. He has called the biggest championship matches in far-off places like Mexico, Russia, Yugoslavia and Iran.

Taking year off

But, like Dominic, his roots are still close to home. Tucci is just as well known on wrestling mats in Broward and Dade counties as in Russia. For 12 years, Tucci served as the commissioner of high school wrestling for the two counties. Until Dominic's birth last year, Tucci booked referees for matches between schools and regularly took to the mats himself.

``With the baby, I took this year off,'' Tucci said from his and wife Cina's living room, keeping an eye on Dominic.

He's not really taking the year off. Tucci will leave for Atlanta July 18, where he will spend eight days serving as one of 60 officials working Olympic wrestling events. Tucci will be one of three Americans.

He will be a mat chairman, highest-ranking member of a three-person staff calling matches. It'll be Tucci's job to make final judgment if there's a dispute between the referee and judge and to make sure the match runs smoothly.

Outstanding in '88

It's the same position Tucci held in the 1988 Games in Seoul, where he won officiating's highest honor -- the Gold Whistle, given to the competition's outstanding official. He has also worked the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and was named a referee for the 1980 Games that America boycotted.

``The tougher the competition, the more I enjoy doing it,'' Tucci said. ``I've done so many world championships, there aren't many challenges left.''

Officiating does nothing forTucci's bank account (he gets only expenses) but another type of account has seen staggering growth: frequent flier miles.

Banked so far -- about 110,000 on United Airlines, 80,000 on Delta and 70,000 on American.

``I've been to Europe four times since school started'' in September, he said.

Worldwide reputation

Principal Jack Gilbert gives him the time off. It's not often a faculty member has a worldwide reputation in his hobby. Referees on Tucci's level are rare. He attained the sport's highest level in officiating in 1975, one of only five in the United States and one of 120 worldwide with those credentials. He was inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Okla., in 1994 when he received the hall's lifetime achievement award. He is also president of the USA Wrestling Officials Association.

Chuck Almeida, Miami Sunset High department head for physical education, knew Tucci before all that. Almeida is retired now. He was a two-time Olympic referee. He and Tucci came up together through the international ranks.

``When he walks out there, everybody knows him,'' said Almeida, Tucci's friend since 1972. ``They know that when he's on the mat, no one's going to get [robbed]. You know it's going to be done right.''

From New Jersey to Norland

Tucci, who grew up in Toms River, N.J., moved to South Florida after wrestling for the University of West Virginia. Knee operations ended his collegiate career after Tucci's sophomore year, when he started helping out the team's coach.

After college, Tucci got a job teaching physical education at Norland Middle School in 1969, then coached wrestling at Miami-Dade. When the school dropped wrestling in 1977, Tucci went back to Norland, then to Highland Oaks.

``I like the middle school kids,'' Tucci said. ``You have a unique opportunity to really teach them.''

Tucci hasn't let that opportunity pass by in wrestling, either. He often gives area coaches' clinics and kids' clinics.

Hollywood Fire Rescue fire marshal Bob Madge is a former Miami-Dade Community College wrestler and current referee. He met Tucci when Tucci moved to Hollywood in 1969.

Said Madge: ``An official of his caliber, clinics are not something he has to do.''