Lansing star, two-sport pro and NFL referee Dean Look reflects on a ‘blessed’ life

Hall of Fame linebacker Dick Butkus was considered one of the most intimidating players in the NFL.

At one time, the famed Chicago Bear earned the moniker “Most Feared Man in the Game” and he earned it on the field with a constant scowl, piercing stare and no-nonsense approach to the game.

And, in August of 1972, Dean Look found himself on the wrong end of a Butkus tirade.

It was the Lansing native’s first season as an NFL official. He was working as a linesman in a preseason game in New England.

Butkus laid out Patriots quarterback Jim Plunkett near the sideline. Look threw a flag for a late hit. Before the yellow hanky even touched the turf, all 6-foot, 3-inches and 245 pounds of Butkus was in Look’s face.

“I’ve been called most of the things he has called me, but never in that combination he used,” Look laughed and shook his head Tuesday afternoon inside Coral Gables Restaurant. “It was amazing that he could get all of that out, one after the other. He started out calling me a ‘little rookie so and so.’”

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After the game, Look went into the official’s locker room and made a decision -- he was finished.

“I said, ‘I don’t need this,’” he recalled. “You are enjoying (this job) and doing the best you can, and they keep yelling at you. I was done.”

Look was used to being the best at his craft. And he certainly wasn’t a quitter.

The Everett High School graduate was an All-American quarterback at Michigan State University in 1959. He had a brief stint as an outfielder for the Chicago White Sox and a quarterback for the AFL’s New York Titans.

But the barrage of expletives from Butkus, coupled with the constant ridicule from the Bears’ sideline, was too much.

His fellow officials talked him off the ledge. One by one, they explained to him that they had all “quit” before and that this type of behavior from coaches and players can be common in a league where pressure is the common denominator.

Look went into the dressing room determined never to look back. He came out a member of a brotherhood.

“It was my ‘welcome to the NFL’ moment,” he said, smiling through his white goatee. “I never thought about quitting again.”

The pep talk he received that fall day led to a 29-year career in the NFL, which featured three Super Bowl appearances and a touchdown signal in the 1982 NFC Championship between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers, a play now simply referred to as “The catch.”

NO COMPLAINTS

Blessed.

That's the word Look keeps coming back to.

He was blessed with a fairy-tale upbringing.

Blessed with not one, but several, successful careers.

Blessed with three daughters, seven grandchildren and a wife of nearly six decades. 

Sitting in a booth at the East Lansing diner last week, Look, now 79 and white-haired, stared down at his half-full glass of water, attempting to think of any hardships he has faced in life. A smile crosses his face. Having to think that hard about it is a good problem to have.

Even a triple bypass in 2000, which ended his tenure as an NFL official, had a positive outcome. He doesn’t have to travel all over the country and can spend more time with his wife, taking walks around their Okemos neighborhood. It might not sound like a thrill, but for this family man, nothing comes close.

With his thin-framed glasses, navy blue sweater and white turtle neck, Look now resembles a retired doctor rather than a legendary two-sport professional athlete.

He laughs when he thinks back on it all. In his mind, he was just a good athlete from a small school on the outskirts of town.  

The accolades tell a different tale.

While attending Lansing Everett High School, Look broke the state Class C pole vault record in 1956, clearing 12-feet, 6-inches.

Look went on to become a star football and baseball star at Michigan State University, catching the eye of pro scouts from both sports as early as his sophomore year.

A 1959 headline in the Lansing State Journal claimed Look was the best football player to come out of Lansing since Harry Kipke, who went on to become a national championship football coach at the University of Michigan. That same year, he was drafted into the Major Leagues and the first-year American Football League on the same day in November, spurning the expansion Denver Broncos for a $50,000 contract to play baseball for the Chicago White Sox.

“It was hard, but baseball was signing with bonuses and football was a bag of popcorn,” Look laughed. “Even as a first-round pick you didn’t make much money.”

After his brief professional sports career, which ironically ended as a quarterback in the AFL, Look thrived in the insurance industry and even went into business with Dr. Lanny Johnson, who was one of the first doctors to perform arthroscopic surgeries in the nation. After a decade of playing "doctor," Look tried his hand at officiating high school football games. What was supposed to be a one-time deal turned into three decades in the blink of an eye, Look said.

“I have no complaints,” he said. “I have lived a blessed life.”

PLAY BALL

Sports were a way of life in the Look household.

Bill Look was a legend in the local city league and even spent time in a Philadelphia Athletics minor-league affiliate in Delaware. He was slick with the glove in the outfield, but was an even better father to Dean and his younger brother, Bruce.

The money he made in the minors wasn’t worth the headache of busing from game to game up and down the East Coast. Plus, he missed his family. Bill Look left his nascent pro career to return to the south end of Lansing to be with his wife, Margaret, and young sons.

Bill Look worked long hours at the Oldsmobile plant while his sons were making a name for themselves on the diamond at the old Everett playground. If the boys weren’t playing day-long baseball games at the park, they were tossing the football, shooting hoops or practicing pole vaulting and high jumping in the pit their father made in the backyard. Three state champion pole vaulters came out of that backyard on Rouse Street. Dean Look boasts.

“Our house was the place to be,” he laughed. “We always had a big jug of lemonade waiting. Just help yourself.”

Bruce Look, who was also a star baseball player at MSU, spent time as a left-handed hitting catcher in the Milwaukee Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota Twins organizations. In 1968, Bruce spent one year in the majors with the Twins where he hit .247 before being sent back down to Triple-A.

That backyard is a special place to Bruce, too. It reminds him of the start of his athletic career. It also shows the heart and generosity of his parents.

“There were more kids in our backyard than there was on the playground," Bruce Look said. “My parents loved it. Our friends even called them mom and dad.”

Their neighborhood had a 10-cent store and a grocery market on one side and a pheasant hunter’s paradise on the other. “The sticks” as Dean Look calls it, was an ideal place to grow up, and Everett High School was an optimal place to hone his sports skills.

Look played every sport available. He said he had to, because the school had fewer than 300 students. Plus, he loved to compete.

He became one of the top runners in the state. Bruce Look claims his brother could run a 100-yard dash in 10 seconds in high school. Numerous universities coveted the Everett halfback and track star, but no one more than legendary MSU football coach Duffy Daugherty.

Look recalls Daugherty dropping by the house to drink coffee with his parents from time to time. He joked that the coach liked his parents more than him. For a moment, he thought he might flip the script and head to Ann Arbor to play for the Wolverines. He even took a recruiting trip to the Michigan-Ohio State game at the “Big House.”

“I remember Hopalong Cassidy running down the sideline and scoring a touchdown,” Look said of the 1955 Heisman Trophy winner from OSU. “I was on the Michigan bench and yelled ‘Go Hoppy’. I got some looks after that. The next day I met with Duffy and told him I was coming to Michigan State.”

Look helped lead the Spartans to a shared National Championship in 1957 and made the move from tailback to quarterback in 1959, where he led MSU in total offense with 875 yards. He was named team MVP and earned a spot on the All-America team after finishing sixth in Heisman Trophy voting.

His most memorable play was a 92-yard punt return for a touchdown against Michigan in 1958. The rivals battled to a 12-12 tie.

“We never lost to Michigan or Notre Dame during my career," Look smiled.

Look also played baseball for the Spartans, where he was named first-team All-Big Ten in 1958 after leading MSU in six offensive categories.

He was a legitimate two-star athlete. Soon, pro general managers and owners would come calling.

LIFE AFTER SPORTS

Look had a total of six plate appearances in his brief major league career. He never recorded a hit. The closest he ever came was in his second at bat when Orioles Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson dove over the bag to make a leaping stop and rob Look of a double. Look was fast, but Robinson threw him out from his knees.

“That’s when I figured I better look for something else to do,” Look laughed.

He went back to football.

With some help from Daugherty, the former minor league outfielder found himself signing an AFL contract to play running back for the Buffalo Bills. He was excited for the opportunity. Not many guys can switch sports, especially at the highest level.

Look's pro football career was short-lived.

After playing three preseason games with Buffalo, Look was traded to the New York Titans. He was a tailback and a third-string QB. After three games, the former MSU star found himself under center on the main stage at the famed Polo Grounds.

“I went in the game in the second quarter,” he said. “I rolled out to throw a pass, and a guy smacked me in the jaw and broke my neck. I never played again.”

His one pass attempt in pro football was intercepted and taken back for a touchdown. Look still claims it was a good pass – from what he can remember. He also said there was no chasing down Broncos defensive back Bob Zeman.

It’s easy to see why Look spurned the AFL for a guaranteed baseball contract. In his one season in New York, Look said his contract paid him roughly $16,000.

Becoming a referee was safer and more lucrative, he laughed.

Look loved the atmosphere of the NFL, the different stadiums around the league. He cherished his run-ins with infamous hard-nosed coaches like Don Shula, Tom Landry and John Madden. He saw all the greats of the '70s, '80s and '90s do their thing.

Look is too humble to admit he's a “local legend.”  He occasionally makes the trip to Spartan home games, but says it’s mainly to “shake hands and kiss babies.”

Look said he enjoys the simple things this day, like telling his grandkids his many tales about the sports world. And he lights up when he talks about Miki, his wife of 58 years. They started dating in high school and went to school together at MSU, where she was a cheerleader.

She knew he was a star athlete, but said that never got in the way of their lives together. He kept his business at the office.

Miki said one word comes to mind when she thinks back to the life she has shared with Dean – fun.

“I am just so proud of him,” she said. “Our daughters have enjoyed every minute of it, too. He is a great guy, and it has been a wonderful life. No complaints from me.”

Contact Cody Tucker at (517) 377-1070 or cjtucker@lsj.com and follow him on Twitter @CodyTucker_LSJ.