Beloved NFL Official And Aggie Red Cashion Dies At 87

Referee Red Cashion signals a score during a game between New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park on December 11, 1988 in San Francisco, California.
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Mason Lee “Red” Cashion, one of the most well-known and colorful NFL officials and a 1953 Texas A&M University graduate, died Feb. 10 in College Station following a lengthy illness, The Eagle first reported. He was 87.

Cashion was literally born on the Texas A&M campus in 1931 where his father helped to run the YMCA, a popular Aggie fixture at that time when many faculty lived on the campus grounds.

Cashion graduated from A&M Consolidated High School in 1949 and attended Texas A&M on a baseball scholarship. After graduating in 1953, he entered the U.S. Army and served for four years.

He married Lou Burgess and they started their family in College Station in the early 1960s where Cashion, his father-in-law Hershel Burgess and a close friend Dick Haddox started an insurance business. The business eventually was named ANCO and is still thriving today.

Cashion, always a sports lover, began officiating high school and college football games in the 1950s and 60s and eventually became an NFL official in 1972. He served as an NFL official for 25 years, calling more than 500 games in that time, including Super Bowls XX and XXX plus numerous playoff and championship games.

His signature call of “First Dooowwnn” became nationally known, and after retiring as an NFL official, he went on to work for the league in developing and training future NFL refs. He was president of the Professional Referees Association and was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2015, he received the NFL’s Art McNally Award for his dedication to sportsmanship and his service to the league.

At Kyle Field, the locker room for game officials was named The Red Cashion Officials Dressing Room in 2003.

Cashion was active in numerous charities and organizations, including serving as chairman of the Chamber of Commerce in 1964; Chairman of the Brazos County Industrial Foundation; Chairman of the Brazos County Association of Independent Insurance Agents; Chairman of the Region VI Education Service Center; Brazos County Volunteer of the Year in 1972; and he was named Brazos County Citizen of the Year in 1994 and presented the honor by President George H.W. Bush. He also was a frequent bell ringer for the Salvation Army many Christmases.

A celebration of Cashion’s life will be held at 10 a.m. Feb. 18 at the A&M United Methodist Church.