3 man mechanics in 1987?
 

Last night, on the Big 10 Channel, I watched a game from 1987 (Purdue at Illinois). It was a good game, but there were two things that made it stand out to me.

One, the players all looked "skinny". I'm guessing that today's players are much more into strength conditioning. The announcers were raving about Ken Norman's (Illinois) body, "he's a real man on the floor!", but honestly, he looked like he was built like Steve Nash.

The other thing I noticed was the positioning of the officials. They were working 3-man (with collared shirts!), but the positioning was totally different than what we work today.

The lead either never rotated or very seldom rotated. Instead, he'd go directly under the basket and hunch over to see the play. When the ball would kick back out to the side, he'd go out about halfway.

The slot and trail were more like two slots & trails. Often, they would both be above the top of the free throw circle or both be halfway down the lane. Bird-dogging must have been required as they all did it.

On some plays, the slot official was as low as the low block and only about two steps outside the lane. He could have grabbed a rebound or played defense!

Another old mechanic was the slot official on free throws administered the free throw, and handed the ball to the shooter.

If anybody on the forum knows anything about the mechanics in 1987, I'd love to know more.

The C administering a/the FT/FTs was also in 2-person mechanics. There was even a transition year where the L did the last, and the T did the others (or was it T first and L others?).

It sounds to me like this was a "quirk" of the particular official(s), and not the standard mechanics.

That's about the time that I first started officiating Basketball.

In our training that year, I do remember a strong emphasis on the lead official moving along the baseline and staying out of the paint. We were told that it was a new philosophy to get better angles on rebounding and drives to the basket. However, in several games I watched that year with veteran officials, I noticed that as soon as a shot went up, the lead would "get to the hole", or move directly into the middle of the key to officiate rebounding action. When I asked some of them about it, I was told that was how it was being taught at the college level and that's how they were going to do it.

Also, bird-dogging was a very big deal then when a foul was called.

As I remember, the C or T administered the first then the L took it from there.

In the early days of 3 man, there was no rotating or flexing. The L and T were always tableside and all three officials switched on a foul. The NBA developed rotating and many other mechanics that we use today in 3 man and it eventually filtered down to the NCAA and NFHS.

And if you've never seen the C or T administer a FT, you must be pretty young. That mechanic was still in place up until just a few years ago. I'm thinking around 2001 or 2002. :)

So Ed Hightower was working the game?

Not so young...however I didn't start officiating until 2003. I learned 3 person at a camp in the summer of 2004 and it was taught pretty much as it is now.

I didn't catch the names of the officials, but if one of them was Ed Hightower, he was unrecognizable!

Before the gap, I remember administering from the trail. On a 1+1, we would hold each arm out with the one finger. Trailside hand would have the count by flicking the finger down.