
Scott Perdue went to and played for Haverford High School where he played goalie. In the 1981-82 season, the Fords won the EHSHL Championship against Malvern Prep. Perdue was awarded the league’s best goals-against average. They played in the Flyers Cup that year but didn’t do well, Scott’s best memory was playing against Mike Richter. During his school career, Scott missed his sophomore year due to a knee injury but In his senior year, his 5th season playing organized hockey, it was his best. In the 1982-83 season, Perdue planned to try out for the Hershey Jr. Bears but the season never happened because the head coach had a heart attack and their season was canceled. Hockey was essentially over as Scott went off to trade school where he graduated in 1984.
In the summer of 1985, while playing men’s league at the Skatium in Havertown, Scott got to know one of the refs and asked him about officiating. He remembers that ref telling him, “If you want to learn about officiating, let’s grab a beer and we can discuss it.” The ref asked Scott “hockey IQ” questions and some other penalty-type questions and thought Perdue just might make a good ref. That ref was Jim McHugh. “I have a lot to thank him for as he took me under his wing and got me going in the right direction”, said, Perdue. That same season, Jim introduced Scott to Mike Condon and Matt Jones. What more could he ask for, for mentors, three of the best in the business!
Perdue’s officiating achievements include working the Philadelphia Flyers training camp in the summer of 1986. His first pro game was in March of 87′ in the ACHL, (now the ECHL) it was the Winston Salem Thunderbirds vs the Virginia Lancers. The first fight he had to separate was during that game, it was former Washington Capital Alan May. In his second game, there were 3 fights, seventeen seconds into the game. Then with one second left in the game the benches cleared and the coach from Virginia left the bench to fight the coach of Carolina. The head coach for Virginia was John Tortorella!
Scott worked the very first season of the ECHL in 1988, was a linesman in the Jr. B Nationals, and worked the finals as well. Also that season he worked the AHAUS, (now USA Hockey) Eastern Regional Camp in Lake Placid New York, where he was voted best official by his peers. In 89′ Perdue officiated the Bantam A Nationals and worked the Finals as a linesman. Later on that season, he worked the AHAUS National Camp at Northern Michigan University. Unfortunately, there were knee issues after that camp.
Over the course of a decade, Perdue worked various high school league finals, Flyers Cups, State Championships, and other District Tournaments. He was USA Hockey Seminar Instructor, and assigned officials for the Atlantic District playoffs and a few USA Hockey national championships.
1999 was Perdue’s first AHL season when they added the Wilkes Barre Penguins. Unfortunately during that first season in January of 2000, while skating a game in Wilkes Barre, he caught a rut and fell breaking his arm in three places just above his elbow ending up with 13 screws and two plates in his arm. His final AHL / ECHL season was 2003 when he decided to call it a career after another knee injury.
After that season, Scott transitioned to working as a supervisor wanting to help officials get better. He wanted to give back to officiating. About 10 years ago, he got involved with the USA Hockey Junior Development Program as a supervisor helping officials climb the ladder to the NCAA, and pro hockey. During that time, he supervised officials in both the USHL and NAHL. After taking a break from hockey for three seasons, he realized how much he missed hockey so he returned to coach officials in the NAHL. In 2009-10 Perdue served on the Philadelphia Flyers off-ice officials staff.
