Mike Outten came to football officiating later than most, but now there’s nothing that can keep him from putting on a striped shirt on Friday nights.
Not even two bouts of cancer.
The first time was in 2023. Outten and his Chicago-based crew worked the Class 4A state semifinal between St. Laurence and Wheaton Academy, and his stomach was acting up.
‘‘I was thinking I had an ulcer,’’ Outten told the Sun-Times. ‘‘I’m popping Rolaids like Skittles.’’
A trip to the doctor confirmed the bad news: colon cancer that had spread to his liver. He had chemotherapy before doctors last year removed the right side of his liver, part of his colon and his gallbladder.
Even while undergoing chemo, Outten kept working. He officiates basketball during the winter and does baseball in the spring. He worked two baseball state tournaments and now does college games.
Then the cancer came back this summer. Outten had a liver ablation — ‘‘where they burn the cancer out,’’ he said — Aug. 22.
That was a week before the high school football season started, and Outten was back doing games as though nothing had happened.
‘‘Now I try to stay busy,’’ he said. ‘‘Everybody’s like, ‘You’ve got to be crazy. You do this and that.’ . . . I’d just rather get back to normalcy.’’
To Outten, who’s 51, that means continuing a sports journey that began when he played high school football for legendary Julian coach J.W. Smith. Outten went on to play at Mississippi Valley State before a broken wrist suffered while playing arena football ended his career.
When he returned to Chicago, he went back to Julian, working as an assistant on Pete Thanos’ football staff and serving as head baseball coach. He later moved on to coach at now-closed Hope before switching course.
‘‘In 2008, an older guy by the name of Chuck Matthews was teaching everybody how to referee,’’ Outten said. ‘‘I said, ‘I’m going over to the dark side.’ ’’
Outten works on a crew with Chris Head, Kenneth Davidson, Ivan Palamore and Larhone Miles that has officiated numerous big games, including three state championships: Nazareth vs. Lincoln-Way West in 2015, Joliet Catholic vs. Montini in 2018 and Nazareth vs. Joliet Catholic last November.
‘‘It’s funny,’’ Outten said. ‘‘We’re all the best of friends. I get to go hang out with my boys on Friday night.’’
Outten is proud of the role his crew has played in elevating the status of Chicago-based officials.
‘‘Why can’t five Black guys do Friday nights?’’ he said.
Retired Robeson coach Roy Curry, who led the first Public League team to play in a state final in 1982, has known Outten since the latter played at Julian.
‘‘He’s been doing a great job,’’ Curry said. ‘‘I love Mike. He’s always talking about the days we used to play each other.’’
Curry often watches games from his car outside the south end zone at Gately Stadium.
‘‘Mike always comes over there, [and] we talk football,’’ Curry said. ‘‘I told him, ‘You’re going to beat [cancer]. You’re going to ring that bell.’ ’’
Besides working games himself, Outten is taking a proactive approach to boosting the chronically low numbers of officials in Illinois. In 2014, he helped launch the LT Bonner Football Officials Camp, an annual event named for the longtime Public League mainstay who worked everything from four state finals to Big Ten games and also served as an NFL replay official. While other camps cost hundreds of dollars to attend, the Bonner camp’s registration fee is an affordable $60.
In the meantime, Outten will be at stadiums around the city and suburbs every weekend.
‘‘I’m going to continue to live my life,’’ he said. ‘‘My nurse told me to win each day.’’