Following graduation from Miami High School, Mark Hudson continued his wrestling career, competing one year at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, before finishing at Southwest Missouri State University. He was in the practice room at NEO one day when his high school coach, Glenn Reding, stopped in asking for a favor. The referee for that night’s high school match had canceled and he needed someone to fill in. With that dual, Hudson’s distinguished career as a referee began.

He continued to referee area high school matches around his college schedule. When he injured his knee as a junior at Southwest Missouri State, and reinjured the same knee as a senior, his involvement with wrestling shifted solely to officiating. He traveled the state, officiating all the big high school tournaments

From 1976-1998, he was in great demand, calling high school, junior college, and NCAA Division I duals and tournaments. He officiated nine Oklahoma dual state tournaments, 20 high school regional tournaments and 18 state championships. He was named OSSAA’s Outstanding Official 10 times.

At the collegiate level, he officiated eight NJCAA championships, 21 NJCAA regionals and five NAIA championships. He also officiated at the Reno Open three times, the Great Plains Open five times and the Las Vegas Invitational three times. He called numerous duals in the Big 10 and Big 12 conferences for Iowa State, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, including his first-ever Bedlam dual where the heavyweights were determined to throw punches with him in between.

Although he retired after officiating for 22 years, Hudson continues to be involved in the sport of wrestling, supporting Oklahoma high schools, NEO and the youth wrestling programs in Miami and Grove.

For his excellence behind the whistle, Mark Hudson is honored with the Lifetime Service to Wrestling Award by the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.