Upon further review: 'In the world of officiating, Jim Tunney is Babe Ruth'

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Jim Tunney has seen both ends of the spectrum.

He was the NFL's youngest game official when he was hired as a 30-year-old field judge in 1960, and now is the oldest living retired referee, three weeks removed from his 95th birthday.

Tunney, a graduate of Occidental College, was on the field in stripes for some of the most memorable games in NFL history, among them the "Ice Bowl," a frigid game between Dallas and Green Bay; "The Catch," when Joe Montana's pass to Dwight Clark toppled the Cowboys and sent the San Francisco 49ers to their first Super Bowl; and "The Fumble," when Denver beat Cleveland in the AFC championship game. He refereed three Super Bowls.

"Jim Tunney is in our space really the first referee who had to embrace television," said Gene Steratore, a former referee who will be in the Super Bowl booth for CBS on Sunday as the network's rules analyst. "He projected himself into our living rooms to make some sense of what those guys in the striped shirts were doing. And he did it in the way that was digestible."

Put simply by CBS play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz: "In the world of officiating, Jim Tunney is Babe Ruth."

And even midway through his 90s, Tunney still knocks it out of the park when recounting his storied career.

Good friends don't always start out that way.