Jack Vest

After leaving East Tennessee State, Vest coached high school football and turned out a 9–0–1 record with a St. Paul, Virginia team which had only 17 players on the entire squad. He coached at Greeneville High School in Greeneville, Tennessee from 1951 to 1953.

In June 1972 Vest was killed in a motorcycle accident at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Chuck Heberling was promoted from line judge to replace Vest as referee, and the remainder of Vest's crew worked with Heberling during the 1972 and 1973 seasons. Heberling's line judge position was filled by Red Cashion.

He wore uniform number 3 as a referee in the National Football League (NFL) during the 1970 and 1971 seasons. During a Monday Night Football game between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles in November 1970, Vest wore bright blue gloves which were easily visible to the television audience. The NFL soon passed a rule all officials' gloves had to be black. That game is more memorable, however, for the antics in the broadcast booth, where Howard Cosell threw up on Don Meredith's boots and had to leave Franklin Field at halftime.

In 1965, he became an official in the American Football League (AFL). He was the referee for Super Bowl II between the Green Bay Packers and the Oakland Raiders.

After coaching football at Hanes High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, he became an executive in the insurance department of Wachovia and devoted much time to officiating. Vest official games in the Southern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference and worked in the Gator Bowl as a football official in 1964. For six years in a row he was an official in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) national championships in Kansas City.

Jack Vest was born in 1926.