Standing in the old soccer stadium, four Centre County men looked around skeptically.

Chris Fivek, a local high school referee, had recruited three fellow officials to come all the way to Arusha, Tanzania, and help stage the first American football game played on the continent of Africa.

But days from the kickoff, the field appeared far from ready. Shaggy grass. Ruts. No lines. No goal posts.

“And we thought, ‘No way,’ ” Jeff Holter said.

On game day, though, the referees returned to find a transformed turf. A man with a push mower better suited for a suburban backyard had trimmed the field, and the ruts were flattened. Lines stretched between sidelines. Freshly-welded posts stood.

Drake University and the CONADEIP All-Stars from Mexico could square off.

“It was amazing,” said Holter, 54, an educational consultant from Bellefonte. “They must have worked overnight.”

He and Fivek, joined by Mark Armstrong and Todd Desmond, then took the field for the Global Kilimanjaro Bowl, the brainchild of Global Football, a Texas-based organization that arranges international college football games.

During their visit earlier this summer, the referees also dodged traffic while touring the city, participated in youth football clinics, met a mob of schoolchildren and took a one-day safari.

“I never expected anything like that,” said Armstrong, 48, a surgeon who resides in Zion. “I truly felt honored to be a part of it.”

An adventure begins

A call to Fivek started the adventure.

Fivek, 58, works as a director at two Penn State colleges. He also referees at the Penn State Fantasy Football Camp, which Global Football organizes. One day this spring, his phone rang. It was Patrick Steenberge, a former Notre Dame quarterback from Erie and Global Football’s president.

“Chris, I’ve got an opportunity, an experience, of a lifetime,” he said.

Fivek listened to the enticing details. Global Football would cover all expenses except the flight. He would work with Bill LeMonnier, a collegiate referee who officiated the last NCAA national championship game.

He considered the offer for a few seconds.

“I think I said yes without even asking my wife,” Fivek said.

Steenberge needed three more referees to round out the seven-man crew. Fivek found them, all veteran local officials who had worked together for years. They scrambled to get ready — passports, visas, tickets. Armstrong gathered everyone for a day of vaccinations.

“It was just a rush,” said Desmond, 50, a Beech

Creek middle school teacher.

As Holter recalled: “I think all of us, when we were going through the (vaccination) procedures, thought, ‘What are we getting ourselves into?’ ”

Arriving in Arusha

They departed for the same flight in two limos, paid for out of their own pockets.

One was for them. The other contained five duffel bags full of tents. Global Football needed them for a Mount Kilimanjaro climb for the teams. So to save money for the organization, the referees hauled extra luggage.

On the hour drive into Arusha from the airport, they glimpsed Tanzania’s poverty firsthand — or, rather, didn’t. Scant electricity makes for dark nights.

“As you passed towns, you could see buildings, but just small little candlelights, no street lights,” Holter said.

Another difference: Armed guards patrolled their hotel and escorted them elsewhere. They also protected fields where players held two days of football clinics.

Before long, nobody noticed them. Both teams were too busy watching excited children run pass routes and dance through agility drills.

As fun as that was, the referees had a memorable encounter with local students all to themselves.

The crew, including officials from Mexico and Poland, was returning from a clinic when the driver took a side street near several schools. Passing by a gaggle of kids in class uniforms, the referees decided to stop and chat.

Quickly, the gaggle turned into a crowd.

More smiling children magically appeared as the officials passed out candy. They shook hands. They tried to give high-fives but ran into a problem.

“They had no idea what we were trying to do,” Armstrong said.

A quick demonstration of the concept unleashed a torrent of palms before a local man intervened and the referees could break away.

“All seven of us were out there doing high-fives,” Fivek said.

During the safari, however, everybody stayed in the cars.

A huge herd of elephants, a tree full of baboons and lions, among other wildlife, discouraged venturing across the savannah. Encountering zebras, the referees felt underdressed — if only they had worn their striped jerseys to meet their African cousins.

Calling the game

Seeing the big game was exciting. Officiating the big game — a penalty-filled affair — was a challenge.

LeMonnier had prepared them well for their first college game. They were ready for the quicker action — and the stadium’s limitations. Since it lacked a scoreboard with a clock, the referees kept the time and downs, informing teams as best they could.

“I was on the Mexican sideline, so there was a bit of a language barrier, but we worked through that,” Desmond said.

A wireless microphone for announcing penalties broke soon after kickoff, but the crowd of 12,000 sitting in the hot sun on concrete tiers and plastic chairs didn’t care. Children enjoyed free footballs and T-shirts. Though much on the field was a mystery, cheers erupted from the stands.

“It was the first time I’ve been to a game where there wasn’t any booing, because they didn’t know what was going on,” Fivek said.

He also had never dashed down a field at such an altitude, about 5,000 feet.

“By the end of the third quarter, I was sucking wind,” he said.

After Drake’s 17-7 victory and a festive banquet, the teams stayed for a service project at an orphanage and their mountain climb. The referees left, having already had a week’s worth of highlights — anarchic city motorists, swarming street vendors, pointers from LeMonnier in hotel bull sessions and, on their last day, unlikely milkshakes in an Arusha cafe.

Some day, they’ll have a film of themselves as a souvenir. A one-hour documentary about the game reportedly is in the works. But until then, they can replay memories of their hosts’ hospitality and their contributions to a historic event.

“It really was a trip of a lifetime,” Holter said. “It turned out to be everything we hoped for, and then some.”

Chris Rosenblum can be reached at 231-4620.