LOS ANGELES-The Asian American Sports Officials Association (AASOA) is proud to share the news that Kevin Mar has been assigned as the Referee for the 87th Annual USC-UCLA rivalry football game.
Mar is the first Asian American football Referee to work for the Pac-12 Conference. He joined the Pac-12 Conference starting this 2017 season. Prior to joining the Pac-12, Mar was a Referee in the Mountain West Conference from 2014-2016. Mar started his FBS college football officiating career with the Big 12 Conference in 2006 as a Line Judge. Additionally, Mar has been part of the NFL’s Officiating Development Program since 2014.
“I have followed Kevin’s career as an official for several years through his assignments with other conferences and his participation in the NFL’s Officiating Development Program, and found that his leadership, knowledge and professionalism to be exemplary,” said David Coleman, the Pac-12’s VP of Officiating. “He is passionate about his profession and continues to strive to get better each week. We look forward to him leading our officiating crews for years to come.”
Mar is a 2nd generation Chinese-American who currently resides in Omaha, NE. He started as a sports official in 1994 by officiating youth and high school basketball and football. He has volunteered his time mentoring sports officials in his local area in addition to mentoring several Asian American football officials throughout the country.
The Pac-12 Conference institutions have a combined Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) student population of approximately 15%. The two universities involved in the game, USC and UCLA have AAPI student populations of 23% and 32% respectively. At UCLA, AAPIs are the largest ethnicity at the university. At USC, AAPIs are the second largest ethnic group on campus.
The USC-UCLA rivalry is one of the biggest in college sports. The rivalry is especially unique since both universities are located in the same city with campuses only 12 miles apart.
