Dreith is a 1950 graduate of the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, where he played baseball, basketball, and football. He was a four-time all-conference selection in baseball and two-time in basketball, and later worked as a teacher for Denver Public Schools.
Officiating career
Dreith was hired by the new AFL in 1960 and moved to the NFL in, following the AFL–NFL merger. He was the referee during Super Bowl VIII and Super Bowl XV and was assigned eight conference championship games. Dreith also was an alternate official in Super Bowl II; he wore uniform number 12, which is now worn by Greg Steed. In 1983 in his typical no-nonsense fashion, in a late season game between the Steelers and Browns, Dreith ejected Jack Lambert from the game for a late hit onBrian Sipe in what turned out to be Sipe's final NFL game. Dreith is also known among football fans for his unique explanation of a personal foul penalty during a game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets. After the Jets' Marty Lyons tackled Bills quarterback Jim Kelly to the ground and started to repeatedly punch him in the head, Dreith announced to the crowd: "There's a personal foul, on number 99 of the defense — after he tackled the quarterback, he's givin' him the business down there, that's a 15-yard penalty." Dreith's call also involved an improvised hand signal of a repeated punching action. Twenty-one years later, on November 24, 2007, during a game between University of Maryland and North Carolina State University, ACC referee Ron Cherry called a personal foul, saying, "He was giving him the business." Cherry did not use Dreith's hand signal. David Letterman stated he wanted the previous sentence to be a topic for Know Your Current Events.
By, Dreith reached the age of 65 and the league asked him to move into the instant replay booth. He refused and was demoted to line judge. Dreith was fired after the season, thus prompting him to send a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. On February 13, 1991, the EEOC ruled that the NFL had violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act by illegally demoting Dreith. After attempts to reach a compromise with the league, the EEOC sued the NFL on August 13. In the first-ever lawsuit filed by the agency against Professional Football for age discrimination, the EEOC claimed that the NFL unfairly reviewed the job performance of older referees more closely than that of younger officials. The EEOC also noted that the league's performance ratings showed that Dreith performed better than some of the younger officials who were retained. On January 5, 1993, Dreith and the NFL agreed to a $165,000 settlement, plus court costs and attorney fees.
