Most people would use words to describe their dream career. Al Rufe prefers numbers.

The 74-year-old Lansing resident is retiring after more than 40 years of crunching numbers as a statistician for the MSU football and basketball teams.

The number that Rufe will miss most?

Thousands.

It's the number of human faces he came to know and interact with over the years.

"They were just super people to work with," Rufe said.

Another significant number representing Rufe's time at MSU — zero. Dollars, that is. Rufe volunteered all his years with Sports Information.

Due to health reasons, Rufe officially is retiring from football but plans to remain with basketball for at least this season. A "stat crew" will replace Rufe in shifts, but no single person can fill his shoes, said MSU Sports Information Director John Lewandowski.

"You can't replace experience overnight — the great pride that he took in doing (his job) and doing it well," Lewandowski said.

Tom DuByne, Rufe's co-worker and friend of more than 20 years, takes over stat responsibilities when Rufe and his wife, Sara, spend a portion of the basketball season on vacation in Florida. DuByne described Rufe as a good, honest man.

"He wants to make sure things are done right," DuByne said. "He's very meticulous and wants to do the best job possible. He takes a lot of pride in doing this for MSU for all these years."

Retiring will allow Rufe to spend time at his home with his grandchildren and to work in his woodshop.

"I've got four grandkids around here, and all of them are involved in something or other," Rufe said. "We spend a lot of time going to their games. I'll piddle in my workshop, woodworking. I hope to play golf some more."

Rufe is a big fan of MSU football. It's not surprising since he has observed more than 400 MSU football games. He said he has seen the game progress a great deal.

"The kids are getting bigger, stronger and faster," Rufe said. "The emphasis is so much more on making money now.

"Of course, it costs so much more to run a program now. When you've got 40-50 kids on scholarship and you're paying tuition, room and board — that's a lot of money."

But as much as he loves football, Rufe has spent three years more with the basketball program. He has worked as a basketball program statistician for more than twice the number of football games during his career. Naturally, he has noted the changes to the program over time.

"They play faster, they're bigger and they shoot better than ever," Rufe said.

When asked which sport he prefers, Rufe simply says, "I just like whichever one is in season."

No matter which sport he's attending, he has noticed one significant change.

"I see too much where your opponent is an enemy," Rufe said. "I don't like that — I don't think it's good. They boo kids, and I just can't stand that. They should be treated with respect. Play hard as heck against each other, but none of this pushing and shoving."

Working during the fall and winter seasons, Rufe was left a small window of time for an offseason. But he doesn't mind.

Rufe says he finds it hard to pull himself away from sports — he studies the rule book religiously. His colleagues agree.

"When we would have a question, we'd refer to Al," DuByne said. "He'd always have a rule book there, and he'd be the one we'd consult. He knew the rules inside and out. He studied the rules in offseason. He'd be the one we'd look to solve any discrepancy."

With a deep love for numbers and a background in mathematics, it's no surprise Rufe found himself in a career dealing with digits.

Born in 1931, Rufe grew up in a family of five in Concord, Mich. He graduated with 32 other students from Concord High School.

"I just breezed through the courses," Rufe said. "I took algebras, geometry, trigonometry — they didn't have anything beyond that. I think I got that from my father. He's very meticulous and could do things like that."

After graduation, Rufe enrolled at MSU. After one semester, he transferred to Albion College, which he attended for a year and a half.

Even though Rufe has enjoyed his time as statistician for MSU, he was quick to answer which school he preferred as a student.

"I think I liked Albion the most," Rufe said. "It was just smaller. It's just easier to be involved in a lot of activities. I played football, basketball and baseball at Albion. I played with some great guys."

In 1951, Rufe entered the U.S. Marine Corps and was stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego. His quick head for numbers came in handy.

"I had a lot of math education by the time I got there, and they had me in what was called the 'forward observer corps,'" Rufe said. "Our job was to direct artillery fire on the enemy.

"We used mathematics and trigonometry to figure out how far away the target was, and then you would tell them what angle to fire the weapon at and in what direction."

While he was in the Marines, Rufe traveled the country and the world, and he even had a chance to get a sneak peek into one of his future professions.

"One year, they sent me to an artillery school in Oklahoma, and I got there and already knew all the mathematics they were trying to teach us," Rufe said. "The poor instructor was having a terrible time with it because he didn't know it very well. I volunteered to help him and got my first teaching experience right there."

Rufe's time in the Marines coincided with the end of the Korean War, so he spent time in Japan before being relocated.

"All the military that was in Japan was shipped to Korea overnight," he said. "I enjoyed that, except for the trip home. It took us 17 days on a boat to get home. They just don't go very fast."

When he finished serving in the military, Rufe made his third collegiate stop — this time at Western Michigan University. He graduated in 1957 but didn't end his education there.

"There were no jobs available, so I just stayed there and started working on a master's degree," Rufe said. "Best move I ever made. The fact that I got out of school and there wasn't a job put me on track to get my master's."

Finally, in 1961, Rufe completed his time at Western and took a teaching and coaching position at East Lansing High School, after having moved to East Lansing in the summer of 1960. He taught mathematics and coached football, basketball and golf.

Having spent so much time working closely with MSU athletics, one person in Rufe's life will appreciate him spending more time around the house.

"We'll enjoy watching the games on TV," said Sara Rufe, Al's wife of 23 years. "Years ago, I had season tickets until the grandchildren were in middle school and high school. I gave up my season tickets to go to their football and soccer games on Saturdays."

But Sports Information is sad to see Rufe leave the program he has been loyal to longer than the current players have even been alive.

Even with thousands of faces and hundreds of games, one number sticks out in Rufe's colleagues' minds when describing his work as the MSU statistician: No. 1.

"If you talked to anyone on that stat crew, you'd find that he rubbed off on all those folks," Lewandowski said.

"I'm just going to miss seeing his smile."