[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.
Prior to either the 1969-70 or 1970-71 (I am leaning toward the '70-'71 school year for reasons that are not important to this discussion.) school year, there was no "seat belt" or coaching box in the National Basketball Committee of the United States and Canada (NBCUSC). (For the benefit of newcomers to the Forum, the NFHS and NCAA rules committees are the direct descendants of the NBCUSC.)

The NBCUSC adopted what we call the coach’s bench rule (“seat belt”) starting with the ’70-’71 season. The rule adopted then had no provision for a coach’s box and was less restrictive in one area than the rule as it is currently written. The rule as written originally way back in 1970 allowed the Head Coach to stand during dead ball, stopped clock situations (i.e., A floor violation has been called by an official, the ball becomes dead with the violation and the clock is stopped, the ball remains dead until the throw-in touches a player on the court (I know, I know, that is not when a ball becomes live during a throw-in now.) and the clock starts. When the NBCUSC adopted this rule the OhioHSAA went one step further and did not allow Head Coaches to stand during dead ball, stopped clock situations. One could say that the OhioHSAA was ahead of the curve as far as this part of the rule is concerned.

I do not remember exactly when the NFHS and NCAA rules committee adopted the coaching box part of the rules, except that when they did, the NCAA eliminated the “seat belt” rule and adopted the coaching box (28 feet in length) and the NFHS kept the “seat belt” rule while amending it by dropping the “during a dead ball, stopped clock situations, and made the coaching box a StateHSAA adoption (six feet is length). It should be noted that the 28 foot hash marks were chosen because they were already part of the floor (I can’t remember if the fore-court and mid-court rules had been eliminated yet, I think they had been by this time) because these hash marks divided the front court into mid-court and fore-court areas.

It should also be noted that when the “seat belt” rule was adopted the OhioHSAA required a report to be submitted on a special form every time a Head Coach received a technical foul for a violation of the rule. I still have some blank forms. My wife thinks I should get rid of them but I think that they are quaint. Of course some of you are probably thinking that I put the OhioHSAA’s printer’s children through college because of number of forms I had to complete.

It should further be noted the OhioHSAA that officially experimented with the coach’s box rule before it was adopted by the NFHS.

As far as the MichiganHSAA is concerned it did not adopt and coaching box until just a few years ago.

Someone's been to the attic...