The scene? Usually a packed arena, fans going nuts, two ranked teams trading roundhouse blows, furiously trying to be the last to punch one through the bucket. There’s a dead-ball moment and a coach goes into “work it” mode. He’s up off the bench, almost out of the box. “C’mon, Jim, they’re killing us in the paint!”
The referee, Jim, is a few feet away, arms folded, face blank. His head slowly turns. The motion is indifferent. He locks eyes with the coach. His expression is ice. Not a line on his face changes, but there’s something about his eyes. The look.
In a sport as claustrophobia-inducing as basketball, with coaches right in your ear and fans right on top of you, sheer presence might be a referee’s best tool. And a guy like Jim Burr, he’s got it in spades. It’s a trait that’s made him one of the best-known, most-respected and in-demand officials working NCAA Division I men’s basketball. Most coaches don’t spend a lot of time jawing at Burr. And it’s not just that look of his. He’s been through the wars. He’s earned their respect.
The Blue-Collar Approach
He’s got that right. Burr is all business on the court and off, and his approach is as simple as black and white.
“I have to laugh,” he says without laughing. “A lot of coaches probably don’t think I have a very good personality or that I’m mad all the time. That’s not true. I think I have a very good personality. But I’m put into a situation by a supervisor of a conference to go out and referee a basketball game between two highly competitive individuals on the sidelines who both want to win. And I’ve got to somehow run that game using the rules of basketball and the rules of common sense to try and make sure that both of them have a fair opportunity to win the game.”
“I’m a blue collar referee,” he continues. “I go to the game to do a job, and sometimes I probably come across as maybe being too much of a hard-ass. But that’s the only way I can get the job done in a successful manner.”
Final Fours and Championships
He’s clearly in good company. “If someone considers me one of the top 15 refs in the history of college basketball, you bet I’d be happy with that,” he says, but only after pressed for an answer. “I’m honored if that’s the case, but I’ve never felt that way. I’m my own worst critic. I’m 5’8”, a little short and probably a few pounds too heavy. I’m not very glamorous, I’m not very attractive and I’m not going to be in any GQ magazines. But I hustle, I get my feet wet and I get my hands dirty.”
“There are some athletic, chiseled-looking referees, guys who look just tremendous on the court, but they couldn’t referee a girls’ volleyball game.”
Cutting His Teeth in Upstate New York
“We worked those games and they were hard,” says Burr. “Two-man stuff. They were in front of hostile crowds. They were in small gymnasiums. I don’t see where a young guy today comes up through those circumstances.”
Burr gets almost sentimental when he talks of those days. You get a sense that maybe this man who regularly keeps order on the court for the big gun teams of the Big East, SEC, ACC, Big 10, Big 12 and Conference USA might be happier taking charge of some old small college Clarkson-Hobart game. “I still like the games,” he insists, “but I think what’s getting to me is the travel. I find it difficult. There are fewer flights, more people. The security is a pain. I realize it has to be done, but it’s not fun. As far as getting to the arena and dealing with the excitement of the basketball game, that I still enjoy.”
The Transition to Teaching
Burr is 58 and he’s been established in D-I ball since the early ’80s — he and good friend Tim Higgins are the only two remaining original officials on the Big East staff, the conference he’s most fiercely loyal to. Has he thought about retirement? “I’ve got three to five years left on the court,” he says, offering no more. And then what? Burr’s voice perks up a little. “I’d be a great teacher,” he says.
He’s talking about training refs, but in fact, Burr was a teacher. Back before he was the self-employed owner of nine mobile home parks, Burr taught junior high school mathematics for several years in his 20s, an experience he gushes about. “I loved it, absolutely loved it, but I decided I needed to make some money,” recalls Burr. “So when the mobile home opportunity came up, I got into it. To tell you the truth, I wish I’d had more time with teaching.”
When it comes to teaching refs, Burr’s voice is as passionate as it is coolly detached when he speaks of his on-court officiating. Burr supervises basketball refs for 30 D-II and III schools for the ECAC, many of the same schools he officiated for during his rise through the ranks. He also runs the well-regarded Hoop Mountain Referee Camp with fellow officials Tom O’Connor and Charlie Diehl, who’s now retired from the floor. “It’s a teaching camp, plain and simple,” he says. “And I don’t want it to be anything more than that.”
Training the Future
“We had a gentleman come to Hoop Mountain about five years ago, and he came for only one reason. He thought it was going to be his way to get into Division I basketball. He kind of copped an attitude. And I went to him and said, ‘Listen, I’m going to give you your money back. I’m going to have Tommy cut you a check. I don’t want your money.’ I cannot get anybody into Division I basketball. I won’t even try. But I can teach him to be better at the level he’s at right now. That’s what’s going to get him to the next level, that and working some tough games at small schools.”
“It’s my personal opinion that that’s where our future officials are,” Burr continues. “The problem is those schools are very limited budget-wise. It’s my opinion that those fees should be subsidized either by the major conferences or the NCAA because it’s going to pay dividends. The training needs to take place in the heat of the battle. Instead of having some guy run around a camp, have him work the toughest Division II and III games. But who wants to do small college when they can stay at home with their families, making 80 bucks working a high school game? Dangling a $105 game fee at them isn’t going to make any more of them drive two hours one way for a Division III game.”
A Hard-Nosed Life Off the Court
Burr got his start in officiating while still in high school in his hometown of Henderson, N.Y. His basketball coach was also an official who took a liking to Burr’s style and got the kid to officiate the seventh and eighth grade games with him. “Coach Wheeler was a tough S.O.B.,” says Burr. “He was an old Marine drill sergeant. He’s in his 80s now, but we still get together now and then.”
From there Burr went on to State University of New York in Oneonta to become a teacher. There, Burr played soccer, eventually officiating games. “I had to stop refereeing soccer when I got out of teaching,” he says. “I couldn’t make the four o’clock games anymore.”
Burr has three children—Heather, 30, from his first marriage; Alexa, 15, who has followed in her father’s footsteps by officiating soccer; and Jimmy, 12. He and his wife, Andrea, built their Latham, N.Y., house in 1985. Burr’s own parents, who are now deceased, adopted him as an infant. In his 40s, he decided to find his biological parents to investigate his family health history. While his biological mother is deceased, he found his father in California and developed a relationship with him. “He’s healthy as a bear. I tell him that’s what I like to see. Good sign.”
Conclusion
Blue collar on display, whether it’s at such basketball royalty as Duke, Connecticut or Kentucky or some match-up between two conference cellar dwellers, Burr will be there, a dispassionate force for order, getting his hands dirty when he needs to. And then it’s on to the next job.
