Personalities
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Profiles and stories about officials and people close to officiating.
FIFA Referee Mark Geiger
By his own proud admission, the man is a nerd. Conjure images of that wisp of a kid you remember from high school who...
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...
Back From The Blindside
Veteran football official Robert Watts
was recently elected president of the Austin (Texas) Football Officials Association (AFOA). It is all part of moving on with...
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...
John Parry Mixes Business and Humor
It's 2007, and rookie NFL referee John Parry is tossing the coin for a game pitting the undefeated New England Patriots against the undefeated...
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,...
Iowa Wrestling Community Helps Official Get to Championships
In Iowa, wrestling is practically a family affair, almost a religion.
It’s a place where every kid with a little ability and a steely attitude...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
Home Bruns
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tiger Woods and Randy Bruns have more in common than you might expect. All three have been to the pinnacle of their...
It’s Black and White
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ave you ever wondered why officials wear black and white stripes? In the early days of football, referees wore white dress shirts, bow ties...
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...
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...
Silent Stands Teach Us A Valuable Lesson
The 2020 New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA) State Basketball Championships were able to conclude last March, crowning 10 boys’ and girls’ state champions. The...
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...
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...
Crystal Hogan is Right At Home in Men’s D-I College Basketball
Ask Crystal Hogan to discuss her nearly two-decade journey as a basketball official, and she’ll rattle off a long list of names, locations and...
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...
5 Minutes With Gerry Davis
Residence: Huntington Beach, Calif.
Occupation: MLB umpire; owns Gerry Davis Sports, which sells officiating equipment and attire.
Experience: MLB umpire since 1982; worked MLB World Series...
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,...
Ability, Not Disability
will Fried, a basketball official in the Wichita, Kan., area, recently earned a degree in conflict analysis and resolution, which on the surface makes...
Ron Groover is In the Groove
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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...
