Cadillac Position ...

[BillyMac]

This is a photo of one of my friends on the cover of the May 2025 IAABO Sportorials magazine.

It's the same photo that appeared on all of the Power Point title pages at the IAABO Fall Seminar.

Perfect positioning and posture going from old trail to new lead, running up right sideline looking over her left shoulder.

Not backpedaling, not looking forward.

Perfect, probably why it’s on the cover.

Back in “ancient times” the lead found themselves running up the right sideline 95% of the time.

“Cadillac Position” mechanics and the importance of not “working opposite” dictated that.

Back then all free throws had the lead on the right side of the thrower and the trail on the left side of the thrower, with no regard to tableside, or non-table side.

Back then, some officials hated working opposite (lead on left side of court, trail on right side of court), sometimes forced by a throwin on the "wrong" side of the court.

The trail would always dictate when to recover (cross over to “Cadillac Position”), and some officials in the trail position would cross over as quickly as possible, even at times that were not advantageous for proper court coverage.

Other trail guys would comfortably stay working opposite for far too long, leaving the lead scratching one's head thinking “Please cross over so that I can rotate to my comfortable lead position on the right side of the court”.

One’s willingness, or unwillingness, to “cross over” was always discussed in pregame.

Always.

Even referees with the shortest pregames, “Good eye contact. Don’t f**k up. I don't like working opposite”.

When the NFHS (and IAABO) switched away from “Cadillac Position” mechanics, I often had trouble as the new lead, running up left sideline looking over my right shoulder.

Still feels awkward, looking over my right shoulder, to this day.

Old habits die hard.

Anybody else remember the “Cadillac Position”?