First, a video introduction:
I'd bet that he has a longer Wikipedia page than any other referee, and probably most coaches and players. His page has 13 sections and goes as far as describing the professions of his six kids.
I love what everyone else loves about Hochuli: He takes incredible care to describe to the football audience [with as many words as he needs to] exactly what just happened and his rationale for calling it the way he did; he signals the call with bodily exuberance (see photo immediately below); and he looks like a teddy bear with tanks for biceps.
Fittingly, Hochuli was born in the Beer and Dairy capital of the world (Milwaukee) in 1950. He went on to play linebacker at UTEP from 1969 to 1972 and earn his Juris Doctorate from the University of Arizona in 1976. In his day job, he is a partner in the Arizona law firm of Jones, Skelton and Hochuli, specializing in civil law.
I assumed before I did any web browsing that the Hochster would have a huge cult following on the web, and it's true that he has an exceptionally long Wikipedia page and many tribute videos on YouTube. But the activity on fan pages and blogs is disappointingly weak, at least what I can tell from Google.
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NFL referees, as a bunch, are strangely fascinating. While there are over 120 active NFL officials when you factor in the head linesman, the umpire, and the line, field, side, and back judges, through week 11 of the 2010 season, only 17 of these 120 officials stand in front of the camera and tell us what's going on. These are who we call the "referees", and probably more than any player or coach on the field, we see the faces and hear the voices of NFL referees, yet we generally know so little about them.
The best source I found for information on referees is football-refs.com. They have bios on all the active refs, keep crew schedules, and have discussions of rule changes and controversial calls.
It's especially interesting to learn about the day jobs of NFL officials. Although NFL referees can make anywhere from $20,000 to $75,000 per year according to a CNN article, almost all of them have completely unrelated jobs during the week. There are some lawyers like Hochuli, there is at least one police officer, and there is an entrepreneur and inventor. I think the NFL is missing a marketing opportunity by not revealing more about its crazy (striped) cats.
