[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Whistles & Stripes

I Think part of the excessive hand motions had to do with what I believe is an old mechanic that is still sometimes used, and that is, when reporting fouls, as you verbalize the color of the offending team, you also point to their bench. That mechanic has never been around as long as I've been calling games, but I've seen a number of officials that have been referees longer then me do it and seem to recall someone saying that at one time, that was the proper mechanic.

Yeah - we used to do that. We also had to check the ball at halftime to make sure there weren't any splinters from the peach baskets, too.