August 14, 2024 • 15 mins
The shrill, piercing sound of the whistle has been involved in countless unforgettable (for better and for worse) sports moments, but the story of its rise to prominence as the weapon of choice for referees across sports and continents isn’t well known.
Listen now to hear how a toymaker turned into a tycoon by using a pea to revolutionize the whistle, the former ref who ushered in a new era of whistle design, and why it all matters.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sports dot MP three a podcasts exploring the true stories
behind sports most iconic sounds, quotes, and other audio related things.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Anyone who has played or even just watched sports has
probably heard or said that their team was playing not
just against the opponents, but also the referees. And that's
the thing about refs. They rarely get praised, and they
do have the power to change games, alter outcomes, and
(00:45):
make or break entire championships with their whistles or lack thereof. Now,
don't get it twisted. I'm not some avid referee Dan
who is trying to paint them in a sympathetic light.
I'm simply stressing the fact that with play a huge
role in sports, not just results, but also legacies and
(01:06):
narratives too. Yet, the sound of the whistle itself isn't
ever the defining part of the countless moments and memories
it is spawned since its invention. No, it's paradoxical in nature.
You see, the whistle itself is just an instrument. No,
it's more like an amplifier or a speaker, capable of
(01:28):
boosting the emotions of the play that's about to happen.
Two shots to ice the game at the free throw
line and just as capable of hitting mute on a
crowd cheering a last minute defensive.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Stand sh rough in the passer.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So today, on this episode of Sports Dot MP three,
which you should be falling right now on whatever platform
you're listening to, I'll be diving into the story behind
the whistle in sports, the story of a simple plastic device.
And no not the Vooboozela already did that one that
has since led to unforgettable sounds before and after it's played,
(02:07):
turning cheers into booze, screams to celebrations, and also creating
lots and lots of cussing. So sit back, relax, and
make sure to follow on socials at Sports Underscore MP
three Delay of game. All right, point taken without further ado,
Let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
If you ended up in a time machine and the
time machine sent you back approximately one hundred and fifty
six years ago to Nottingham in the UK, precisely fifty
two point nine six five nine two to two latitude
and a longitude of negative one point one six one
one seventy three, you'd find yourself at the Forest Recreation
(03:00):
Grounds where the local Nottingham Forest Football team, the football
where you kick the ball into goals played at the time. Now,
if you were able to get past your confusion, amazement, concern,
and other emotions regarding the time travel stuff and instead
decided to simply blend in with the locals, you'd find
(03:21):
yourself watching a football match and you would end up
a lot like the haters of the iconic rap artist
flow Rida. You wouldn't be listening to any.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Whistle technical Yeah, that was a bad one.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Instead, you'd see the referee on the football pitch waving
a handkerchief around to signal fouls. As ridiculous as it sounds,
you'd have to teleport to the same spot about a
year into the future, to the twenty first of December
eighteen seventy eight before you'd be able to witness or
(03:57):
hear a referee below a whistle instead of in addition
to waving handkerchiefs, sometimes rigging cowbells. It's one of those
inventions or inclusions in sports and life that we don't
really think about the before of kind of like cars.
I mean, yeah, yeah, sure we've all thought about it,
(04:18):
but have you really just thought about how much walking
we would have to do. I mean, buruh. The world
of referees, fans, players and sports alike was shifting towards
an era that it has never since returned from the
era of the whistle. And it was all thanks to
one man, only some forty miles s sorry, only some
(04:43):
sixty four kilometers away from that very field, a toy
maker in Sheffield who is working on a unique type
of toy, one that would bring grown men to tears.
And although it was decades ago, the company he would
create and doing so is still in existence today. I'd
(05:11):
like to apologize to any teachers that are listening. But
if you go to Joseph Hudson's Wikipedia page, it's fairly unremarkable.
Upon first glance. The top of the page displays just
three words, his name, Joseph Hudson, and then a word
(05:31):
surrounded by parentheses inventor. The entire article itself is about
one hundred and sixty words in total. For reference, Joe
Hudson's Wikipedia page, you know, the American baseball player currently
playing in the Triple A for the Syracuse Mets, displays
the name Joe Hudson and then a word in parentheses catcher.
(05:55):
His article is almost six hundred words long, three times
as long as Josephiph Hudson, Inventor and his Wikipedia page.
The first sentence of Hudson the Inventor's page reads as follows.
Joseph Hudson eighteen forty eight to nineteen thirty was an
inventor from Birmingham, England during the late nineteenth century and
(06:19):
founder of J. Hudson and Co. In eighteen seventy, later
to become the world largest whistle manufacturer. Now, I didn't
just forget to add the s at the end of world.
The word is missing it in the Wikipedia page. So
you can take that to know sports dot MP three
puts truth before fake news and alas, it also probably
(06:42):
vindicates what the teachers were saying about Wikipedia pages. As
I was saying, the man created what would become the
world largest whistle manufacturer. I know what you're thinking, Yeah yeah,
so what well, what about just a little bit further
down the page which reads he later invented the first
referee whistle for football matches. So with just that alone,
(07:05):
you can see why one might argue that Hudson's page
deserves a little bit more than one hundred and sixty
words I mean, the man invented the first referee whistle.
And what's more, you have to admire someone that names
an entire company after themselves. I'll admit that naming your
child after yourself as a junior might be even a
little bit more baller. I mean, it's kind of like
(07:25):
a pre built way of reminding your kid who the
boss is. But the main point is that he missed
out on naming the company Hudson. And come on, that's
a terrible call. Ref Okay, okay. The last sentence of
Joseph Hudson Inventor's Wikipedia page, and this is the last
Wiki thing. I promise this last sentence is definitely the
(07:49):
coolest it reads. Hudson also invented the Acme Thunder, the
first ever pee whistle, which has been and remains the
most used whistle in the world from train guards to
dog handlers, partygoers to police officers. Even if you haven't
heard of Hudson before, you've definitely heard the sound he created.
(08:13):
Hudson obviously didn't invent the whistle itself. He invented a
new type called the pea whistle. He basically added a
tiny ball aka the p into the air chamber. The
new design would rattle the ball when air was blown
into the whistle, and this rattling created that iconic pulsing
sound effect we hear from most whistles. Here's the sound
(08:36):
of a whistle without the pee, and here's the sound
of a piastel without With the small change to the
device made a massive effect. Originally created for police officers
(08:57):
and other things of that nature, the pea whistle instead
ended up spreading throughout the sports world, becoming the go
to weapon for referees regardless of sport. The design itself
has remained largely unchanged in the more than one hundred
years since its creation, except switching from cork material to
plastics and metals. Jay Hudson and Co. The whistle company
(09:19):
founded by Joseph Hudson and his brother James, seized the opportunity,
becoming the largest producer of whistles in the world, later
changing names to Acme Whistles. So what happened next? The
pea whistle was the defining whistle for over one hundred
years after its release. But you can't be king forever.
(09:49):
I've been slightly misleading in the fact that I've been
talking a lot about the whistle as a whole or
a concept as one sound, when in truth, there are
thousands of different types of whistles, and most referees have
a few of them bad boys on them at all times. Seriously,
as with all categories of equipment that have any form
(10:10):
of design differences, there's always going to be split factions
high top sneakers versus low tops, PCs versus consoles, Tupac
verse Biggie, And in the case of whistles, the biggest
divide is the pea whistle versus the pless Huh, I
was scared that was going to sound weird when I
(10:30):
said it. And thus, if the Joseph Hudson and his
PA design was the long standing goat the Michael Jordan
of whistles, who is the promised one, the lebron James
out to take the throne, why it was none other
than Ron Foxcroft, a former referee who would take a
(10:54):
chapter out of Hudson's name A Company after Myself book
and take it a step further, The pioneer of the
Peless whistle faction and creator of the fox forty Peeless whistle,
considered by many to be the greatest whistle of all time.
It might sound like hyperbole, but there does have to
be the greatest sports whistle of all time, and the
(11:17):
Fox forty p liss is definitely up there on the
all time greatest whistles in sports lists that I managed
to find in my extensive research, and please don't ask
me how many articles there were, but to borrow a
phrase from my late grandfather, a Marine Corps colonel, back
to fox Ron. Foxcroft knew he wouldn't be a professional
(11:40):
athlete after an injury at just seventeen years old, so
he ended up referring basketball as a part time gig,
and he did it throughout his career, and he was
pretty good at it. I mean, he refereed some Olympic
basketball games, but he kept having problems with these pea whistles.
They tended to malfunction when they got wet, cold, dirty,
or frozen, and in the context of a rapid game
(12:03):
like Olympic level of basketball, being unable to blow your
whistle was a major problem. To add one last issue.
In the one hundred plus years since the pea Whistle's release,
the crowds, stadiums, and noise at games was getting louder
and louder. And the pea was unable to keep up
with that increased volume. Well, at least according to Ron.
(12:29):
It seems like annoyance can often breed invention, well, at
least in the case of Ron Foxcroft, who decided to
fix the issues he was having with his pea based whistles,
a bold move for someone who had no design background
or means to invent a new whistle. Ron made a
list of features he wanted in a new whistle and
took it to a plastic molding company in Canada, and
(12:51):
the company was basically like, uh, sure, buddy, we will
make the parts required for a new whistle, but you're
gonna have to actually create a design for it and
get back to us with all the schematics. There's a
designer named Chuck Shepherd who might be able to help you,
but good luck. So Rod did what they said, and
he found Chuck Shephard, teaming up with him to design
(13:12):
what would become a revolutionary whistle. Chuck and Ron made
more than fourteen prototypes before they officially and finally constructed
the Fox forty pless whistle without getting two technical The
new design produced three different frequencies at the same time
without any peas. The three sounds were designed to peak
(13:36):
at slightly different times, which canceled out the three individual
sounds and instead created a single loud vibrato. And yes,
that sounds exactly like the pless sample I used earlier,
and that's because it is the exact sample. All in all,
it sounded a lot like the Peabody whistle, but without
(13:58):
the risk of the ball getting stuck making no sound.
Ron's Fox forty plus whistle didn't immediately gain investor interests,
but Ron wasn't worried, and he bet on himself, using
his savings to launch Fox forty International, Inc. In nineteen
eighty seven. Yeah take that, Joseph Hudson. The plus whistle
was first used professionally later that same year at the
(14:21):
Pan Am Games in Indianapolis, Indiana, so it was a
pretty immediate success, and in the years since it saw
more and more of that, becoming the go to whistle
for the National Hockey League, the NCAA, the NBA, the NFL,
and various other acronym based sports leagues nation and worldwide,
(14:42):
which begs the question are you team P whistle or
team plus? The whistle behind some of the most important,
controversial and memorable moments in sports, And although the whistle
itself will never be able to conjure up the emotions
(15:05):
that a game winning shot, career altering call, or unforgettable
ending creates, the whistle will forever be next to those moments,
helping to mold, amplify, and mute them, forever defining but
never creating. Damn those coming deep And that's it. I'm
(15:27):
Will Gatchel and this is the end of sports Dot
MP three. Please make sure to follow us on all
social platforms at Sports Underscore MP three. Please make sure
to leave a rating, download it on whatever podcast platform
you're listening to on and be sure to follow and
tell all your friends about it, but only ones that
are probably gonna like it. Don't tell the person you
know hates podcasts, because come on, at that point, I'd
(15:49):
rather you just not say anything. But thank you guys
for listening. I'll see you in two weeks. Goodbye,
Sports dot MP three a podcasts exploring the true stories
behind sports most iconic sounds, quotes, and other audio related things.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Anyone who has played or even just watched sports has
probably heard or said that their team was playing not
just against the opponents, but also the referees. And that's
the thing about refs. They rarely get praised, and they
do have the power to change games, alter outcomes, and
(00:45):
make or break entire championships with their whistles or lack thereof. Now,
don't get it twisted. I'm not some avid referee Dan
who is trying to paint them in a sympathetic light.
I'm simply stressing the fact that with play a huge
role in sports, not just results, but also legacies and
(01:06):
narratives too. Yet, the sound of the whistle itself isn't
ever the defining part of the countless moments and memories
it is spawned since its invention. No, it's paradoxical in nature.
You see, the whistle itself is just an instrument. No,
it's more like an amplifier or a speaker, capable of
(01:28):
boosting the emotions of the play that's about to happen.
Two shots to ice the game at the free throw
line and just as capable of hitting mute on a
crowd cheering a last minute defensive.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Stand sh rough in the passer.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So today, on this episode of Sports Dot MP three,
which you should be falling right now on whatever platform
you're listening to, I'll be diving into the story behind
the whistle in sports, the story of a simple plastic device.
And no not the Vooboozela already did that one that
has since led to unforgettable sounds before and after it's played,
(02:07):
turning cheers into booze, screams to celebrations, and also creating
lots and lots of cussing. So sit back, relax, and
make sure to follow on socials at Sports Underscore MP
three Delay of game. All right, point taken without further ado,
Let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
If you ended up in a time machine and the
time machine sent you back approximately one hundred and fifty
six years ago to Nottingham in the UK, precisely fifty
two point nine six five nine two to two latitude
and a longitude of negative one point one six one
one seventy three, you'd find yourself at the Forest Recreation
(03:00):
Grounds where the local Nottingham Forest Football team, the football
where you kick the ball into goals played at the time. Now,
if you were able to get past your confusion, amazement, concern,
and other emotions regarding the time travel stuff and instead
decided to simply blend in with the locals, you'd find
(03:21):
yourself watching a football match and you would end up
a lot like the haters of the iconic rap artist
flow Rida. You wouldn't be listening to any.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Whistle technical Yeah, that was a bad one.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Instead, you'd see the referee on the football pitch waving
a handkerchief around to signal fouls. As ridiculous as it sounds,
you'd have to teleport to the same spot about a
year into the future, to the twenty first of December
eighteen seventy eight before you'd be able to witness or
(03:57):
hear a referee below a whistle instead of in addition
to waving handkerchiefs, sometimes rigging cowbells. It's one of those
inventions or inclusions in sports and life that we don't
really think about the before of kind of like cars.
I mean, yeah, yeah, sure we've all thought about it,
(04:18):
but have you really just thought about how much walking
we would have to do. I mean, buruh. The world
of referees, fans, players and sports alike was shifting towards
an era that it has never since returned from the
era of the whistle. And it was all thanks to
one man, only some forty miles s sorry, only some
(04:43):
sixty four kilometers away from that very field, a toy
maker in Sheffield who is working on a unique type
of toy, one that would bring grown men to tears.
And although it was decades ago, the company he would
create and doing so is still in existence today. I'd
(05:11):
like to apologize to any teachers that are listening. But
if you go to Joseph Hudson's Wikipedia page, it's fairly unremarkable.
Upon first glance. The top of the page displays just
three words, his name, Joseph Hudson, and then a word
(05:31):
surrounded by parentheses inventor. The entire article itself is about
one hundred and sixty words in total. For reference, Joe
Hudson's Wikipedia page, you know, the American baseball player currently
playing in the Triple A for the Syracuse Mets, displays
the name Joe Hudson and then a word in parentheses catcher.
(05:55):
His article is almost six hundred words long, three times
as long as Josephiph Hudson, Inventor and his Wikipedia page.
The first sentence of Hudson the Inventor's page reads as follows.
Joseph Hudson eighteen forty eight to nineteen thirty was an
inventor from Birmingham, England during the late nineteenth century and
(06:19):
founder of J. Hudson and Co. In eighteen seventy, later
to become the world largest whistle manufacturer. Now, I didn't
just forget to add the s at the end of world.
The word is missing it in the Wikipedia page. So
you can take that to know sports dot MP three
puts truth before fake news and alas, it also probably
(06:42):
vindicates what the teachers were saying about Wikipedia pages. As
I was saying, the man created what would become the
world largest whistle manufacturer. I know what you're thinking, Yeah yeah,
so what well, what about just a little bit further
down the page which reads he later invented the first
referee whistle for football matches. So with just that alone,
(07:05):
you can see why one might argue that Hudson's page
deserves a little bit more than one hundred and sixty
words I mean, the man invented the first referee whistle.
And what's more, you have to admire someone that names
an entire company after themselves. I'll admit that naming your
child after yourself as a junior might be even a
little bit more baller. I mean, it's kind of like
(07:25):
a pre built way of reminding your kid who the
boss is. But the main point is that he missed
out on naming the company Hudson. And come on, that's
a terrible call. Ref Okay, okay. The last sentence of
Joseph Hudson Inventor's Wikipedia page, and this is the last
Wiki thing. I promise this last sentence is definitely the
(07:49):
coolest it reads. Hudson also invented the Acme Thunder, the
first ever pee whistle, which has been and remains the
most used whistle in the world from train guards to
dog handlers, partygoers to police officers. Even if you haven't
heard of Hudson before, you've definitely heard the sound he created.
(08:13):
Hudson obviously didn't invent the whistle itself. He invented a
new type called the pea whistle. He basically added a
tiny ball aka the p into the air chamber. The
new design would rattle the ball when air was blown
into the whistle, and this rattling created that iconic pulsing
sound effect we hear from most whistles. Here's the sound
(08:36):
of a whistle without the pee, and here's the sound
of a piastel without With the small change to the
device made a massive effect. Originally created for police officers
(08:57):
and other things of that nature, the pea whistle instead
ended up spreading throughout the sports world, becoming the go
to weapon for referees regardless of sport. The design itself
has remained largely unchanged in the more than one hundred
years since its creation, except switching from cork material to
plastics and metals. Jay Hudson and Co. The whistle company
(09:19):
founded by Joseph Hudson and his brother James, seized the opportunity,
becoming the largest producer of whistles in the world, later
changing names to Acme Whistles. So what happened next? The
pea whistle was the defining whistle for over one hundred
years after its release. But you can't be king forever.
(09:49):
I've been slightly misleading in the fact that I've been
talking a lot about the whistle as a whole or
a concept as one sound, when in truth, there are
thousands of different types of whistles, and most referees have
a few of them bad boys on them at all times. Seriously,
as with all categories of equipment that have any form
(10:10):
of design differences, there's always going to be split factions
high top sneakers versus low tops, PCs versus consoles, Tupac
verse Biggie, And in the case of whistles, the biggest
divide is the pea whistle versus the pless Huh, I
was scared that was going to sound weird when I
(10:30):
said it. And thus, if the Joseph Hudson and his
PA design was the long standing goat the Michael Jordan
of whistles, who is the promised one, the lebron James
out to take the throne, why it was none other
than Ron Foxcroft, a former referee who would take a
(10:54):
chapter out of Hudson's name A Company after Myself book
and take it a step further, The pioneer of the
Peless whistle faction and creator of the fox forty Peeless whistle,
considered by many to be the greatest whistle of all time.
It might sound like hyperbole, but there does have to
be the greatest sports whistle of all time, and the
(11:17):
Fox forty p liss is definitely up there on the
all time greatest whistles in sports lists that I managed
to find in my extensive research, and please don't ask
me how many articles there were, but to borrow a
phrase from my late grandfather, a Marine Corps colonel, back
to fox Ron. Foxcroft knew he wouldn't be a professional
(11:40):
athlete after an injury at just seventeen years old, so
he ended up referring basketball as a part time gig,
and he did it throughout his career, and he was
pretty good at it. I mean, he refereed some Olympic
basketball games, but he kept having problems with these pea whistles.
They tended to malfunction when they got wet, cold, dirty,
or frozen, and in the context of a rapid game
(12:03):
like Olympic level of basketball, being unable to blow your
whistle was a major problem. To add one last issue.
In the one hundred plus years since the pea Whistle's release,
the crowds, stadiums, and noise at games was getting louder
and louder. And the pea was unable to keep up
with that increased volume. Well, at least according to Ron.
(12:29):
It seems like annoyance can often breed invention, well, at
least in the case of Ron Foxcroft, who decided to
fix the issues he was having with his pea based whistles,
a bold move for someone who had no design background
or means to invent a new whistle. Ron made a
list of features he wanted in a new whistle and
took it to a plastic molding company in Canada, and
(12:51):
the company was basically like, uh, sure, buddy, we will
make the parts required for a new whistle, but you're
gonna have to actually create a design for it and
get back to us with all the schematics. There's a
designer named Chuck Shepherd who might be able to help you,
but good luck. So Rod did what they said, and
he found Chuck Shephard, teaming up with him to design
(13:12):
what would become a revolutionary whistle. Chuck and Ron made
more than fourteen prototypes before they officially and finally constructed
the Fox forty pless whistle without getting two technical The
new design produced three different frequencies at the same time
without any peas. The three sounds were designed to peak
(13:36):
at slightly different times, which canceled out the three individual
sounds and instead created a single loud vibrato. And yes,
that sounds exactly like the pless sample I used earlier,
and that's because it is the exact sample. All in all,
it sounded a lot like the Peabody whistle, but without
(13:58):
the risk of the ball getting stuck making no sound.
Ron's Fox forty plus whistle didn't immediately gain investor interests,
but Ron wasn't worried, and he bet on himself, using
his savings to launch Fox forty International, Inc. In nineteen
eighty seven. Yeah take that, Joseph Hudson. The plus whistle
was first used professionally later that same year at the
(14:21):
Pan Am Games in Indianapolis, Indiana, so it was a
pretty immediate success, and in the years since it saw
more and more of that, becoming the go to whistle
for the National Hockey League, the NCAA, the NBA, the NFL,
and various other acronym based sports leagues nation and worldwide,
(14:42):
which begs the question are you team P whistle or
team plus? The whistle behind some of the most important,
controversial and memorable moments in sports, And although the whistle
itself will never be able to conjure up the emotions
(15:05):
that a game winning shot, career altering call, or unforgettable
ending creates, the whistle will forever be next to those moments,
helping to mold, amplify, and mute them, forever defining but
never creating. Damn those coming deep And that's it. I'm
(15:27):
Will Gatchel and this is the end of sports Dot
MP three. Please make sure to follow us on all
social platforms at Sports Underscore MP three. Please make sure
to leave a rating, download it on whatever podcast platform
you're listening to on and be sure to follow and
tell all your friends about it, but only ones that
are probably gonna like it. Don't tell the person you
know hates podcasts, because come on, at that point, I'd
(15:49):
rather you just not say anything. But thank you guys
for listening. I'll see you in two weeks. Goodbye,
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