College football officials get booed, yelled at, cursed. Delivering flowers to people in the hospital generally earns a better greeting.

Bill Lowe, who on Tuesday announced his retirement as MIAA director of football officials, thinks it’s a decent trade.

“You really make people happy when you deliver flowers,” Lowe said. “That’s right up my alley.”

The 70-year-old St. Joseph man, who works a couple days a week for Garden Gate Flowers & Gifts, has been hiring, firing and evaluating football referees since 1990.

The job involves supervising seven crews of seven officials during a stretch of about 57 games a year.

“I think it’s just time to step aside and handle it,” said Lowe, who retired in 2004 as vice president of Dugan-Lowe Oil Co. “I’ve got to a point in my life that I might as well do something different.”

Lowe has been involved in officiating college sports for more than four decades. He’s done football and basketball in the MIAA and Missouri Valley conferences and basketball for the Big Eight. He also worked the women’s National Invitation Tournament for four years.

During his MIAA tenure, he has only a small regret. The conference never got to send a crew to officiate the national championship game during that time. But that’s a factor of the MIAA’s success, he said, because seemingly each time it was their turn to officiate, either Pittsburg State or Northwest Missouri State was one of the participants — ruling out MIAA officials.

And he’s most proud of the people he’s worked with and watched develop as officials. More than 20 officials Lowe hired went on to work Big Eight, Big 12 or NFL games.

For instance, he hired George Hayward with the MIAA, and Hayward went on to officiate a Super Bowl two years ago.

“Jealous? Yes, I’m jealous, but I’m happy for him,” Lowe said. “It makes me so happy to see him so successful.

“I think that’s the biggest thing is just watching people start from scratch and build themselves into something. It makes you feel good that you helped people accomplish something, make something of themselves.”

Lowe said he’ll still be involved with the MIAA, doing occasional scouting as well as supporting his replacement as much as needed.

“I’ll still be around,” Lowe said. “I just probably won’t travel as much as I used to.”

MIAA spokesman Matt Newberry said the conference hasn’t named a replacement yet.