Entering his 80s, Dickie Foster is still officiating high school games across the region

With Dickie Foster, what you see in the athletic arena is invariably what you get.

What you see is a spry, lithe 80-year-old guy who’s still going strong as a football and basketball official and, if that weren’t enough, a softball umpire after three-and-a-half decades in the business.

What you get is energy that belies his age, an aura of friendliness, composure, and wisdom that’s part of his DNA, and a steadfast desire to do right by coaches and athletes that drives him to be the best he can be.

“Dickie wants to do everything the right way,” said Rudy Ward, the retired head football coach and athletic director at Highland Springs. “He wants to be fair with everybody. He hustles. He might be 80 years old, but he doesn’t have 80-year-old legs. He fully concentrates on the game. He’s very professional.”

Foster is currently the oldest member of the Central Virginia Football Officials Association. 

Why, you might ask, is he still at it?

“To tell you the truth, I’m afraid to stop,” he said. “It keeps me young. It keeps my body in shape and the weight off. I don’t know what would happen if I stopped.”

Foster is a 1964 graduate of Douglas Freeman High School, where he starred in football (running back, defensive back) and baseball (shortstop) and earned All-Central District honors in both sports as well as induction (in 2014) into his alma mater’s athletic hall of fame.

He played football for a year and baseball for three at East Carolina and earned a degree in education, then came back to Richmond and taught at J.R. Tucker for four years.

He then spent 20 years in the real estate business before returning to education as a math teacher, first at Carver Middle School in Chesterfield and later at Tuckahoe Middle in Henrico. 

By the time he retired in 2008, he was deeply involved with officiating.

“I had two friends from high school, Bobby Grubbs and Wayne Overton, who were doing football and enticed me to come out,” he said. “I started officiating in ’93 and never stopped.”

Two years later, Foster joined the local basketball officials’ association. At about the same time, he began his long stint as a high school softball ump.

Along the way, he also served as a Division III football official for 20 seasons and softball umpire for 11 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and the USA South Athletic Conference.

“Dickie has a wealth of experience and knowledge of the rules and mechanics,” said Bob Siff, a veteran football official, now retired. “He’s analytical. He’s firm but very fair. He’s informative, knowledgeable, and instructive. He’s a local guy who knows all the coaches in the area, and he long ago commanded their respect.”

Foster’s only break in the action came in 2000 when he underwent heart surgery to repair seven blockages in four arteries. Recovery, he said, took six months, and he missed the entire football and most of basketball season.

A competitor always, he handled rehab like a champ and never considered retiring his whistle.

“It never crossed my mind,” he said. “(The health crisis) was just an obstacle I had to overcome. I was going to continue my life. Knock on wood, I’ve not had any additional (heart) issues.”

In 2025, Foster called 42 football games at the varsity, JV, middle school, and rec league level, mostly as a line judge or head linesman. In three seasons this past school year, he officiated 169 total games in his three sports of choice, no small feat for a guy who, at 80 years old, is something of an anomaly.

“Yeah,” he said, “I guess I am. I don’t know of any other 80-year-olds that do as many games as I do.”

Money isn’t his motivation, though officials receive remuneration. Nor is ego. That isn’t Foster’s way. Nor is  recognition. He’s perfectly happy when the games flow smoothly and he isn’t noticed.

His motivation is the challenge. He officiates for the love of the game, any game, and for the opportunity to indulge his passion, support athletics at the grassroots level, and mentor younger officials.

This fall, at Ward’s urging, Foster will wear the referee’s white hat as he did earlier in his career.

“I know how dedicated and conscientious Dickie is,” said Ward, his longtime friend. “He’ll call each game to the best of his ability. That’s the kind of person you want as a white hat.”

Because of his manner, Foster rarely experiences criticism. When he does, he’s learned to tune it out.

“When I first started officiating, my biggest fear was not knowing a rule, so I studied the rules like crazy in all three sports,” he said. “I was just a rules nut, so if a coach ever asked me about a rule, I could almost  quote it to him verbatim. 

“If you have strong rules knowledge, you don’t have to control the game. You let the kids control the game, and you officiate. Because I’m so rule-intense, I stay out of trouble.”

Though he’s called league, region, and state championship contests, the biggest game he’s officiated, he says, is the one he’s officiating at the moment because that game is a memory-maker for players, coaches, and fans.

“I don’t care if it’s little league, middle school, high school, or college, I treat it like it’s the World Series or Rose Bowl,” he said.  “I strive to get everything perfectly correct and instill that into my crew.”

After all these years, then, the fire clearly burns still.

“You look forward to the game that’s coming up, but you know when you get home, you’ll be tired,” he said. “I don’t recover as quickly as I used to if I have successive events, and the days that I don’t have a game, I appreciate the fact that I don’t have to be some place at 5 o’clock.

“The older I get, the more I enjoy (my time), but I also enjoy being on the field or on the court. It fuels me. It gives me mental energy that I can still do this, but I can tell that it’s getting close to the end. I’m not there yet, but I think I’ll wake up one morning and say, ‘I’ve had enough.’”

That said, with another football season on the horizon, the octogenarian is locked in and ready to rock.

“Absolutely,” Foster said. “Once any season starts, the adrenaline flows. You look forward to it like you look forward to Christmas.”