Connect with us

Football

BIG DAWG DOBY STILL BARKING AFTER 33 YEARS

‘COME ON DOBY!’

Dave ‘Big Dawg’ Doby

By Patrick Lujan

If you’re a Guam football fan, you can hear the crowd yelling and screaming after a close play or unwanted flag, “COME ON DOBY!”

Veteran football referee Dave ‘Big Dawg’ Doby has taken it all in stride…33 years in stride.

From youth football to high school to the adult leagues over the years, one thing that could be certain is for the Big Dawg to be on the field stationed a few yards behind the quarterback wearing his white hat and in control of the gridiron game.

All is fine in Guam’s football world until he calls back a long touchdown by throwing his yellow hanky and presenting the holding penalty sign. That’s when everyone on island knows Doby.

“I don’t know. When one team don’t like me or players don’t like what I’m calling, they just start to holler my name ‘Doby’. I can hear my name called ‘Doby’ way up in the crowd,” said the 60 year old.

And you can’t fault him for favoritism either because he has no relatives on island.

IN THE BEGINNING

Doby grew up in the deep south of the United States…still quite obvious with his accent that is still strong today. He came to Guam in 1989 when he saw an ad in the Army Times for a procurement manager for Guam Cable TV. After the initial interview, he was on Guam just a few weeks later.

Initially spending his early years calling football games in Texas and Mississippi, Doby took the field on Guam, remembering his first game between the JFK Islanders and Oceanview Knights (this is when Oceanview was still a high school).

It was 1989 when Dave Doby called his first game on Guam.

“The athleticism of the kids,” Doby remembers the most. “This was my first time (to Guam) and I didn’t think Guam had no athletes, but that changed my mind. Guam has pretty good athletes playing the game of football. That was most surprising.”

Doby says out of his three-plus decades of officiating, the best era for football was in the early 1990’s.

“We had some real good players back then.”

Even though he just turned 60 this year, Doby said officiating has been ‘mostly rewarding’ and that he still loves the game. “Just being around the kids, that keeps me young. It keeps me coming out every year to this game that I love.”

He admits that most of the people he knows on island is through football, though he’s had several private sector jobs before starting up his own business: Professional Training Technology, Inc. which specializes in OSHA/EPA/DOT compliance, training and consulting services since 1994.

He also owns a home in Jonesboro, Georgia where he may retire to once he decides to no longer employ himself.

THE BIG DAWG

It was during the Miller Football League years in the late 1990’s when MFL announcer Phil Leon Guerrero gave Doby the dubious distinction of ‘Big Dawg Doby’.

“I guess that’s just a nickname they gave me and it sticks.”

Asked if he likes the nickname, he simply said, “I love it.”

Ad

GPS Sports Calendar

February

March 2024

April
SU
MO
TU
WE
TH
FR
SA
25
26
27
28
29
1
2
Events for February

1st

Events for March

2nd

3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Events for March

2nd

No Events
Events for March

4th

Events for March

5th

Events for March

6th

Events for March

7th

Events for March

8th

Events for March

9th

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Events for March

9th

No Events
Events for March

11th

Events for March

12th

Events for March

13th

Events for March

14th

Events for March

14th

No Events
Events for March

16th

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Events for March

16th

No Events
Events for March

17th

No Events
Events for March

18th

No Events
Events for March

19th

No Events
Events for March

20th

No Events
Events for March

22nd

Events for March

22nd

No Events
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Events for March

24th

Events for March

24th

No Events
Events for March

25th

No Events
Events for March

27th

Events for March

27th

No Events
Events for March

28th

No Events
Events for March

29th

No Events
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
Events for March

30th

No Events

COMING SOON …

4th Quarter Sports

  • Guam Marathon

QUICK HITS

The Oceanview Knights are your 2024 ISA Middle School Girls Soccer League champions! The Knights beat out the Astumbo Dragons 3-2 in penalty kicks after a scoreless draw after regulation and OT of the championship game.
————————————–
Roque Martinez regains his Deep MMA megaton belt with a unanimous decision win over Ryo Sakai in Tokyo Saturday night.
It was a unification bout in which Sakai won the title after Martinez vacated it in 2019, prior to joining the UFC. Martinez just turned 38 on March 4.

More in Football