Hank Rountree

Henry Jackson Rountree

• Born September 30, 1930 in Atlanta, GA USA
• Died August 17, 2006 in Blairsville, GA USA

Biographical Information

Hank Rountree began his professional umpiring career in the Carolina League in 1964. He was in the Southern League from 1969 to 1972 and was supposed to work in the Pacific Coast League in 1973 but retired instead.

He then resurfaced as a replacement umpire in the major leagues on three different occasions. First, he worked in the National League in 1978 and 1979 when the regular umpires went on strike. While the 1978 strike lasted one day, he worked three games at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. In 1979, he worked 23 games, mainly in Atlanta, GA but also went up to Cincinnati, OH's Riverfront Stadium. As one of the few replacement umpires to have extensive professional experience, he was well regarded by the league and was asked to be the home plate umpire in almost half of the games he worked. He then appeared one final time in a major league boxscore on Opening Day in 1991, this time in the American League. There was another labor conflict that spring, and while it was resolved just before opening day, it was too late for the regular umpires to arrive in time for their opening day assignments, so Rountree, who was part of the league's plan B team, umpired a game at the SkyDome in Toronto, ON.

He worked at the college level for 38 years, including College World Series eight times in four different decades (1960s-1990s), the only umpire (through 2014) to work College World Series in that many decades.

Related Sites

• Hank Rountree at Retrosheet.org
• Sporting News umpire card