All Erselle D. “Red” Cavette ever wanted was the chance to play. Born October 5, 1905 on a small farm in Mississippi, Cavette went to school in a one-room, one-teacher schoolhouse, where the only sports ball he saw was a basketball. And the older boys wouldn’t even let him touch it! You can bet that when “Red” moved to Memphis at the age of eleven, he would attack sports with a joyful fire. Cavette played football, basketball, and baseball at South Side High before enrolling at Christian Brothers College, where he was named All-Memphis in all three sports. In 1927 Cavette joined Early Maxwell’s pro football team, the Memphis Tigers. “Red” was captain of the 1929 squad, still fondly remembered as the team that defeated the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears on back to back Sundays. Cavette then began a long and illustrious officiating career in 1931. In 1937 Dr. Sammy Sanders got “Red” to join the Southern Football Officials Association, and in 1945, Cavette was a founding member of the SEC Football Officials Association. He worked every Saturday from 1945 through 1968 and was rated the top referee in the SEC for sixteen straight years. Throughout his tenure, Cavette officiated in fourteen bowl games and was Supervisor of the Missouri Valley Football Officials from 1969 through 1971. All Erselle D. Cavette ever wanted to do was play in the game! Fortunately for fans and players throughout decades of Tennessee sports history, his wish came true.
