Personalities

Profiles and stories about officials and people close to officiating.

Personalities

Personalities
Profiles and stories about officials and people close to officiating.

Officiating is a Family Affair

Nestled between the San Diego Bay and the scenic splendor of the coastal mountain foothills in Southern California are the sprawling sun-kissed expanses of...

No Wake Zone

I don’t know if Little League Baseball, small-fry wrestling or other youth sports build or reveal character, but I do believe in the innocence of children. That belief...

6 Transcendent Moments for Sports Officials

For some of us, officiating is a vocation, for others it is an avocation. For almost all of us, however, it is a passion that offers feelings of...

Former MLB Umpire Larry Young Brings Training to the World

Larry Young retired as an MLB umpire at the close of the 2007 season, bringing down the curtain on a career that spanned 24...

Muscles and Details Lead to Mike Defee’s Mastery

We'll waste no time addressing Mike Defee’s Popeye-the-Sailor-style arms in an effort to satisfy one of the rages on social media these days. Yes, perhaps...

Hall of Famer June Courteau has Left an Amazing Mark on Women’s Basketball Officiating

A well-read woman with an insatiable desire to cram yet more knowledge into her mind was sitting poolside at an Aruba timeshare dwelling in the summer of 2015. Simply reading doesn’t...

5 Minutes with J.D. Collins

Hometown: Hartford City, Ind. Experience: NCAA national coordinator of men’s basketball officiating; former coordinator of officials for the Mid-American Conference and Summit League; former consultant...

FONZY

By Dan Ronan major League Baseball umpire Alfonso Márquez was driving April 21, 2005, to an early season game in Tampa, Fla., when he got...

Five Decades of Pam Young

When the U.S. Department of Education leveled the playing field for males and females in 1972 by ratifying Title IX, the agency did more than open doors and...

“I’ll Never Forget”: Officiating Legends Recall Their Most Memorable Game

  It is June 14, 1998, at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. The Chicago Bulls are playing the Utah Jazz in Game 6...

‘I’m Still Here’

A boy with hoop dreams, the scope of which he could never have comprehended would one day come to fruition during those halcyon days...

At Home — with Referee Staffers

Just because the COVID-19 pandemic has put a temporary halt to work at Referee’s physical offices hasn’t meant a stop to the work of...

Meet Barry Mano: ‘One Breath Of Scandal Freezes Much Honorable Sweat’

NASO President Barry Mano was featured on the cover of Compliance and Ethics Professional (CEP) Magazine and was interviewed for the issue by NASO...

Profile: NFL Referee Clete Blakeman

NFL referee Clete Blakeman lights up the room and the field. That’s what his crewmates say about him. Tripp Sutter, a Big Ten official,...

John Wooden: An Interview

You might wonder why a magazine for sports officials interviewed a coach, even one as legendary as John Wooden. Through our decades of experience,...

Ten Basketball Officials, One Family

I t's ten basketball officials, one family as Cal Von Rueden, 15, recently joined the ranks of this basketball officiating dynasty in the greater Milwaukee...

Defining the “It” Factor

Rules knowledge, mechanics and making the right calls are important. Missing any of those elements can break your career, but having them won’t make...

NHL Referee Finds Success as Elite Amateur Golfer

At 7:18 on the morning of June 14, Garrett Rank stood on the 10th tee at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island, preparing...

Long Journey from Minors to MLB World Series

As their school bus approached their home on Holman Avenue that November morning in 1986, Chris Guccione and little brother Steven were distracted by...

Soldier on After Tragedy

Ten-year-old Chris Stover wanted to be a soccer official, but the rules said he had to be 11. The assigner “felt sorry for him...

NCAA Referee Keith Kimble Keeps It All In Perspective

Sure, basketball is important to NCAA men’s referee Keith Kimble. But that’s only 20 percent. It’s the other 80 percent of his life that...

Going to War with Joe Crawford

NBA fans’ character sketch of Joe Crawford has been drawn in indelible ink. They long ago dismissed him as that referee with a centimeter...

Ron Groover is In the Groove

L Life sometimes can hinge upon a chance meeting. That’s how it worked for NCAA basketball official Ron Groover. From relaxing after a pickup basketball...
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Frank DeFord, Longtime Supporter of Sports Officials, Dies At 78

We at Referee magazine and the National Association of Sports Officials are much saddened by the passing of Frank DeFord. Frank received accolades, honors...

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