REGINA -- Paul Dojack is going to the Grey Cup. That's the good news. The bad news is that the league isn't going to allow him to referee the game.

Dojack's ears must have been ringing, the number of times he heard his name this year. I heard it called out in at least four different press boxes this season.

As in "this game would be officiated a lot better if Paul Dojack was still alive."

Well, he is still alive.

He's 88 years old now, the most respected referee in CFL history.

And in a year in which many suggest the league officiating hit an all-time low, he's going to be sitting in the stands in Taylor Field cheering for the Zebras to end their checkered season with a good game.

"Never had any players swinging their helmets at the officials in my day," said Dojack of the two incidents this year.

"But I had a little old gal in Calgary who hit me with her handbag.

REAL RABID FANS

"The real rabid fans in Calgary always seemed to sit in one section. One game one old gal came after me with her handbag and beat me over the head.

"She was quite serious.

"I was always on the lookout for her and that damn handbag.

"I was pretty lucky in my time. I had a lot of respect. I was pretty well accepted fans-wise, league-wise, team-wise, player-wise, organization-wise and media-wise."

Respected?

He was an institution.

And he worked the most legendary of Grey Cups ever played.

The Fog Bowl. Paul Dojack.

The Mud Bowl. Paul Dojack.

The Overtime Game. Paul Dojack.

The Bibble Bawel Game. Paul Dojack.

"Did 'em all," he said of the memory-makers. "If the commissioner thought I had a good game, I'd get $100. I think I got $100 for most of those games. A regular-season game was only $25. Of course, you'd work the Grey Cup for nothing. It was quite an honour to be chosen to referee the Grey Cup," Dojack explained here yesterday.

"I worked 15 Grey Cups as an official and eight of them as a referee. And every year there seemed to be something to remember forever.

"I worked the Bibble Bawel game when Bibbles was running down the sideline on his way to a touchdown and was tripped by a fan in the area of the Winnipeg bench.

"We didn't have a rule to cover that.

"I had to make that one up on the go.

"It turned out that the guy who tripped Bibbles was an executive of the other team. Bibbles looked like he was gone for a touchdown. But the guy stepped out on the field and tripped him. I took it upon myself to declare that the penalty was half the distance to the goal line.

"I refereed the first overtime game in '61. And we didn't have a rule to cover overtime either.

"Sid Halter was the commissioner and he made one up, the one we still use. Two five-minute halves."

Paul Dojack not only had respect from the players, he saved one of their lives.

That was the Mud Bowl.

"It was terrible. The mud was really thick," said Dojack as he told the story yesterday.

"Buddy Tinsley from Winnipeg was knocked out lying face down in a puddle of water. I said 'Better roll that fella over, I think he's drowning. No way I was going to do it myself. He was too big a man for me to roll over. It's a story and it's a fact.

"But I guess the one I remember most was the Fog Bowl in '62.

"It was my second straight year as Grey Cup referee in the East and that raised a few eyebrows of a few eastern writers.

"There was just over nine minutes to play and I couldn't see the down markers on either side of the field and when you punted the ball you couldn't see it in the air. So we just stopped the game for about an hour. Then Sid Halter, the commissioner, decided we'd play the rest of it the next day."

Dojack lives here. And even though he's 88, he says he's not going to miss this game.

"I started refereeing in 1941. The Vancouver Grizzlies were in the league for one year. It was the Dean Griffing era in Regina back then," he said of the coach of the day.

"Oh goodness gracious, it was a long time ago. I was in the service out on the coast when I started and I had no licence to be refereeing.

COACHING JUNIOR

"I'd been coaching junior football in Regina and Griffing had his Roughriders in Vancouver for a game.

"In those days the travelling team was allowed to bring one official with them. Griiffing figured this guy Dojack was already out there. If he got me, he could save some money."

Dojack says he's one guy who isn't criticizing officials these days.

"It's the kind of game where you're going to have a lot of controversy. It's all part of what makes it a great game. It's human reaction.

"In my day we didn't have instant replay," he adds.

Then, again, he laughs, he didn't have much help. "We had one referee, a sideline man and a downfield guy."

Dojack, who is usually somewhere south at this time of year, decided to stay around for one last live Grey Cup game in his hometown Regina.

"I have the best seats in the house," said the Roughrider season-ticket holder.

"But I hardly ever sit in 'em. Too many people here know me. I have to find somewhere to watch the game where fans don't know me. The fans get excited with some of the calls. They turn to me and say 'Dojack, what do you think of that?' When former CFL referee Paul Dojack, right, gets in a mood to tell stories it can be a very entertaining time. Dojack worked 15 Grey Cups.