When did referees shirts stop having collars?
 

When did referees shirts stop having collars?

My recollection is that we moved into v-necks about 1995 or so.

I think I still have one, wanna buy it?

Scumbag vet trying to sell your ugly grey shirt. :D

No, it's not grey. Or if it is, it's due to age and poor laundry quality.

It's fun watching old game footage of the NCAA and NCAA tournament in the 80's and 90's. Everyone's fashions were hilariously terrible...including the zebras. Their mechanics and two-man crews were interesting as well. Fun to watch.

It was around my first year in 1996-1997. They did not outlaw them at that point, but the V-neck was becoming popular and officials had a choice. The very first games I worked had a collar. By the end of the year I did not wear a collar at all in any games from what I can remember.

I actually in my very first games wore a football shirt (they had a front pocket) and never bought an actual basketball shirt that year. Never looked back from there.

Peace

Are we not supposed to be wearing them now? I usually pair mine with my flat front pants and belt.

It was a while before they were prohibited. I recall working with a guy, somewhere around 2000, who was still wearing one. It had been long enough that he was the only one.

Funny you should bring this up. I ended up in a 2 man game Friday night that was NOT supposed to be 2-man. It was made worse by the fact that we were filling holes created by someone who had an emergency and wasn't able to make it that day, and with no one to fill in, the two of us on that game were working our 4th game of the day. I don't even want to see the tape of that one. I know it was awful.

Long sleeved? :D

Well played!

Oh, please do share some play clips of that gem!

Did you have the trail official hand the basketball to the FT shooter, just for fun? :)

No we did not, although that would have been funny. I did catch myself playing a low T a time or two, and then when we went the other way, I stopped at C for a few seconds before realizing I needed to get all the way to the endline!!

I have requested a copy of the videos.

I think that depends on who you worked for, because it was basically prohibited before that time from my experience. I believe we were not allowed to wear them soon after I mentioned. If you are referencing only the NF Mechanics, that might be a different story. I only worked with a handful of people that had them after I first started and those were usually old-timers that were not getting with the times and stubborn, but those were not varsity games either.

Peace