Three Cheers for One of Our Own!
 

Jeff Rutledge aka at Rut has been named Official of the Year by the Joilet (Ill.) Basketball Officials Association.

Congratulations Jeff!!

MTD, Sr.

congrats!

Congratulations ...
 

The Forum has also named him "Video King".

Congrats, Rut. :)

Great Job

Hip,hip, huzzah!

Do not give a damn!! :D

Congrats Rut! :cool:

I figured Mark was up to something when he asked me what association gave me this honor.

It was a total shock and did not realize that was going to happen.

Well, I might as well say something else that was shocked about. I have been assigned to work my 3rd IHSA State Final in 3A-4A Boys (6 overall) the weekend of March 15 and 16. Looking forward to this for sure. Been a great week so far. Just trying to get through the morning with all the calls and text.

Peace

Like continuous motion, good basket and ONE on top of it! Congrats JRut!

Congratulations!

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Congrats. I had heard that Illinois caps you at 3 state tourney appearances. Is that not accurate?

Not Too Shabby ...
 

JRutledge would never tell us this himself, but for the new guys on the Forum, JRutledge has worked state finals in (at least) one other sport.

Maybe that's why, in an "and one" situation, he will often say, "First down" instead of, "One shot".

awesome
 

Congratulations JRutledge! This is awesome, looking fwd to your continued commentary and challenging posts on the forum---maybe there'll be some case plays from your state games to share with us.

Kind of sorta. They usually do not allow you to work more than 3 in most sports. Sports like football they do not care if you work multiple ones, as they usually do not penalize a crew because the other guys have never worked a State Final. But in basketball where we have the most numbers of any sport, you likely will only work 3 total. Not a hard fast rule, but usually ends when you are assigned your 3rd trip. This is likely the end for me. Some people think I could go back, but who knows.

BTW, the 6 total is in all my sports. I am only the 10th I believe in state history to work the State Finals in Boys Basketball, Football, and Baseball in the history of the IHSA. I am the 4th person in the Chicagoland area to do that as well. One of the guys that did this worked the Super Bowl as a Replay guy (worked in the Big Ten for years) and another guy is in the National Federation Hall of Fame (this past year was honored). Three of the people to do this belonged to the same organization at one time, the oldest Official's Association in the country, the Athletic Officials Association. I am just honored to have done something not many have one. And I am the only African-American to do all those things too. Just trying to follow in the footsteps of my mom, who just got honored herself for an award in her country along with many other awards named after her or she has been honored recently. I have big shoes to fill.

Peace