Officiating In Perspective with Barry Mano

Officiating In Perspective with Barry Mano

The Groan I Can’t Forget

Do me a favor – allow me a walk down memory lane this month. I seldom use this space for such a walk. There are so many important issues affecting all of us in officiating, I intend to use this column to share my thoughts about those with you. But for just this month, I wanted to kick back and “relive” one particular experience I had during my 23 years as an oncourt basketball referee. It came at a time when I was winding down my active officiating life mainly because I had started this magazine a few years earlier and I could sense the need to focus my efforts on that more than fulfilling officiating assignments.

OK, there is a black-and-white enlargement photo in my collection that keeps popping into my mind. The photo shows Bob Staak, then-basketball coach of Xavier, left arm and fist in the air, squared up, closing in on my face, screaming at me. The photo is from a men’s D-I game I worked back in 1983. Let’s see, that would be 41 years ago! I do believe we officials can have long memories. Anyway, here is the story behind the photo.

It was a rivalry game. Xavier was playing state rival Dayton. I had just ejected two kids for fighting, one being Xavier’s star forward. I also had ejected a player from Dayton, but that is getting ahead of my story.

Near the end of the first half, on a rebounding play, two forwards simultaneously elbowed each other in the mouth. They squared off and I, working the endline (crew of two in those days), immediately stepped forward and got between them. One player tried to punch the other player and he responded in kind. Both swings missed. As I looked to my left, I noticed another pair of players had squared off, ready to fight. It was then the sellout crowd uttered a terrible groan. I remember thinking something very bad was going to happen if I didn’t get the situation calmed down.

Xavier’s mascot, a musketeer wielding a real sword no less, was waving the darn thing in front of the Dayton crowd and those folks were about to explode. Security got to the area just in the nick of time. As that developed, I was muscling between the two guards who were starting to swing at each other. No blows landed and I kept moving back and forth between the two arguing groups. Within a minute or two the players were somewhat settled down, but many others were still agitated and milling around. The two forwards who started the ruckus faded into the crowd.

Without people screaming and yelling at each other, I now had a chance to gather my thoughts. It was at this point I realized I did not exactly remember the numbers of the original two culprits. I couldn’t seem to locate the Dayton player, but finally found him crouched down sitting at the end of the team’s bench. I then thought I remembered who the Xavier violator was, found him and announced to Coach Staak that the offender was done. That is when Staak erupted and the photo was snapped.

After a few more minutes, my partner and I were able to clear the floor, shoot some free throws and finish the remaining 90 seconds of the half. We then went to our dressing room for halftime. When we came back onto the floor the guy doing the color commentary for the TV broadcast motioned me over. He said he had reviewed the “tape” of the precipitating incident and that I had gotten the correct two players ejected. I said to him: “Yeah, I had it the whole way.” Never a doubt. Hah!

Referee Magazine Publisher, Barry Mano’s latest Publisher’s Memo. Found in the April, 2024 issue of Referee magazine. For more information or to subscribe to Referee magazine, visit www.referee.com.

View the Officiating In Perspective Video Archive on YouTube