NFHS 2020,21 POE's

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

Until the either the late 1970s (or early 1980s; for reasons of which only BillyMac knows ... the NBC Rules required the Fouler to raise his/her hand an arm's length above his/her shoulder so that everyone present would know who had committed the Foul ... Failure of the Fouler to raise his arm/hand was as TF for Unsportsmanlike Conduct. For the last few or so years that the Arm/Hand Raising Rule was finally removed from the Rules.

Ask, and it shall be given you. (Matthew 7:7)

1963-64 Players who are called for personal fouls are asked to raise their arms to make it easier for the scorer to identify who committed the foul (probably NCAA and/or NBA).
1972 Player who fouls must raise hand (NFHS Handbook)
1974 Fouling player not required to raise hand (NFHS Handbook).
1974-75 The NCAA no longer requires players to raise their hand if called for a foul.
1977-78 The NCAA “strongly recommends” that players called for a foul raise their hand.

Today, players will occasionally voluntarily raise a hand to:

Acknowledge the foul to indicate the call was justified. This has the added benefit of building rapport with the officiating crew.

Acknowledge the foul to indicate it was a purposeful (not intentional) act. This type of foul occurs to stop a fast break, to prevent a highly probable basket (like a breakaway layup), or to put a poor free throw shooter on the line.

Take a call away from a teammate who has more fouls. This occurs when more than one player is involved or in close proximity to an offending player.

So ends today's history lesson.