Craziest/Embarrassing Moments
 

What is everyones craziest/embarrassing moment related to officiating?

Is this thread specifically for Padgett? he could write a book I'm sure! ;)

Man, Was My Face Red ...
 

Continued a five second inbounding count into a ten second count for a violation. It did involve a technical foul, and I did apologize to the coach after the game once I pieced together what I had done.

Young official. First varsity scrimmage. Trying to impress. As lead, I thought it was a two shot foul when it was actually a one and one. After the first miss, I jumped in to get the rebound, and ended up in a pile of big guys all wanting the rebound.

Twice in my career I've called rebounding fouls where I had A1 fouling A2. Thank God for the inadvertent whistle bail out.

Girls game. As trail, counted a three point basket at the buzzer that touched a support wire above the backboard after a high bounce off the rim. I took my eyes off the ball for a split second because I thought that the girls couldn't jump high enough to cause basket interference. Everyone in the gym saw it except me and my partner.

On turnovers, followed by a fast break, changing from old trail, to new lead, while running full speed, while looking over my shoulder. Once, in an nearly empty gym, I ran into the only set of bleachers that was open opposite table side. In another game, in a full gym, I ran into a cheerleader who was a little too far into the playing court.

I have no reason to think this was your fault.

On several occasions, I've had a shooting foul on B1, only to report the foul on A1, and totally forget who the foul really should be on. Luckily for me, hasn't happened to me on a big stage...mainly because I'm not at that point yet

The remedy is simple...slow down!

First year officiating. Had lost a ton of weight but not updated the uniform. Yes you know what is coming. Supervisor was at the game. As I got to mid court I was ready to do the pant hike. But nooooo PG turns it over and we head back down. Player drives end line bang/bang players bump ball goes oob, I have nothing but OB call. Had to run down court like I was riding a horse to keep britches up. After game supervisor asks why I didn't have a foul either way. I said "2 reasons. 1st I thought they got there at the same time so I didn't think there was a foul" He corrected that and said "What's your second reason?" I said " My pants were falling down, and I was afraid if I whistled a foul I'd lose em.! He told em " I like your 2nd reason better!"

Happened during a weekend kids league. I had forgotten my skin colored elastic I used to use on my wrist for alternating possession arrows. Searching through my bag pre-game all I could muster up was a quarter. Seemed fine until following a call I went to move the quarter from one pocket to the other. The quarter dropped and wouldn't you know it landed perfectly on it's side and began rolling down the court. My partner had already put the ball in play and play had resumed. I quickly blew my whistle and drew all eyes on me as I began to track down the quarter rolling across the floor. Safe to say I never used any item with rolling ability again.

Wearing shorts to my 1st HS game :o

I believe that goes for about 90% of our gaffes.

Anyway, second year, I think. Coming out of a time-out of a MS game, I administer a backcourt endline throw-in. A1 makes the throw-in to A2, who makes the lay-up in the near basket.

I blow my whistle, immediately thinking, Dammit Bainsey, you gave the ball to the wrong team! I go to my veteran partner, asking how to get out of this mess. This team just scored, because of me. Now what?

"What do you mean?" he offers. "Just ask the coach if he wants the points."

It took me a minute to realize the gaffe wasn't mine, but A2's, and I honestly hadn't seen a made shot in the wrong basket since I played pee-wee! Everyone in the building knew what had happened, except me. I felt brutally stupid, but no-one knew about it. I suppose that's a blessing.

Actually, I've never been embarrassed. In order to be embarrassed, you have to care what other people think of you. :p

As to craziest moments, I don't think there's enough space on the server. :rolleyes:

OK - I'll try to come up with just a few and post them later.

Two Stories
 

Story one:

I used to wear earrings and have both of my ears pierced. I believe it was the year I started officiating and I was doing a 6th grade girls game and we had the pregame meeting with the players. I go on telling them to remove their earrings and other jewelry as I was the Referee. Well all of this I was wearing too loop earrings in my ear and I did not know it. My partner who was a very good friend of mine wanted to see when I would notice I had them in my ear. It was the running joke for the next few hours and was very embarrassing as he had no idea I would give the Jewelry speech.

Story two:

One more quick story. I called a timeout for the team on defense with less than a minute to go in a game this past year. It was so loud in the gym I "thought" I heard a coach ask for timeout, but obviously heard it from the wrong bench. I happened to be the "timeout official" that day as every timeout I happened to be in front of the bench. I think I called every timeout in this close game that night. Well I just flinched and called a timeout. The place went dead silent and all I could think of is the Southwest Airlines commercial. :eek:

Oh, it gets worse. The team with the ball was either up by one or the game was tied. So we put the ball back in play and low and behold the team who had the ball and was the visiting team throws the ball directly to the opponents for an easy lay up to take the lead. That just had to happen to me did it not? The visiting team and the team who I stopped the clock now lost the game (even with some other controversy which I was not involved in), but clearly lost because of this play. I wanted to hide in a hole and go away. I have never been so embarrassed by a play in my somewhat long career. And the entire situation was in the paper with my name listed. I do not think that will happen again to me. I am not giving any more timeouts. LOL!!!

Peace

This past year, being my first year, I was at a freshman boys game. Team A shoots the ball and player A5 pushes B5 completely out. I have a whistle. The score table tells me that we are in the bonus. I quickly explain to the coach and the score table that "there isn't control on a shot, so we can't shoot bonus"

Well needless to say at halftime of the game I looked up the rule. I apologized to the coach immediately. The coach was pretty forgiving, I think he liked that I looked up the rule right away.

My first game ever - B12U.

Half-way through the first-half and I grant the coach his second time out.

My very senior partner (in age and experience) came up to me and asked, "Why do you keep T'ing up the coach."

No formal training (Hey, I didn't need any, I played and was a coach, right?) and I kept granting his time out by forming the letter "T." :o

That's an understandable feeling, Rut, but don't give in to the myopic fans' perception that this single play lost the game. In 100% of games, the final score determines the winner, and while this play was huge and will likely always be magnified, the reailty is there were at least 31 other minutes of the game that determined its outcome.

I was not worried about fans or anyone but myself and what I thought. Of course that had little to do with the game, that was just a bad decision that was magnified by my mistake. The game was back and forth and a couple of silly plays made the game closer than it should have been by the visiting team. The reality the team lost, but it would have been nice to not have that take place.

Peace

OK - here's one
 

I had a game about 10 years ago in which the two players for the opening tip were way taller than me. I mean really, really tall. I got set to toss the ball and we all were looking up. My mechanic for the toss is to pick a point in the air about three feet above the tallest jumper and concentrate on tossing the ball straight up to that point. I went to throw the ball and my toss hit one of the jumpers on his chin and came back and hit me in the nose. The worst part was that on my subsequent toss, my throw hit the other jumper in just about the same place as the first one.

I called my partner in to make the toss.

GV game a couple years ago. I was the L and the ball goes OOB on my endline. As I raise my hand and put some air in my whistle the whistle flys out of my mouth. Everyone stops to look at me and I can't seem to get the whistle back in my mouth. Finally after a few seconds (which seemed like an eternity) my partner blows his whistle and I give the directional signal. Everyone had a good laugh at my expense.

Dr. Freud...what does it mean???
 

Had a dream where I arrived at gym without a whistle. Woke up in a panic, reached over to the night table, put on my lariat and whistle and went back to sleep.
Got to the game that night (with my trusty whistle still around my neck), started dressing and found out that I should have dreamed about my striped shirt:o:o!!

I think the real question for Dr. Freud here is why do you keep your whistle and lanyard on your night table?

Varsity boys game, A1 drives to the hoop with the ball just outside of the elbow and as he does he clearly pushes off the defender with his forearm. I step towards the play with my fist in the air to call the foul; however, my whistle wasn't in my mouth, never put it back in after the last stoppage. By the time I got it in my mouth and blew the play dead, A1 was just making his layup. Coach was a little peeved about the lateness of the call but who cares? I was embarrassed though.

Came out for the second half of a varsity contest. I always hit the bathroom before coming back out on the court just to make sure the urge doesn't hit me during the game. Well, I forgot to check my zipper and one of my partners finally let me know with about 30 seconds left on the halftime clock that I was wide open. No place to hide and zip it up out on the court.

Early in my career I also had a few of the dreaded forgot who I called the foul on when I got to the table, which is a really sickening feeling. On both occasions I can remember, the table crew bailed me out. I learned to take my time before reporting fouls and now really burn that number into my brain before jogging over to the table.

Some Like it Kinky ???
 

How else is he going to call fouls, and violations, on his wife?

Wasn't a Baby Ruth
 

That turd I picked up off the floor which I thought was a tootsie roll tossed to midcourt by someone from the stands. :eek: JV boys' game. Got a writeup in Referee magazine for that one.
Same gym last year, JV girls' game, and my partner picked up a feminine product :eek: from near the free throw line. Didn't dawn on him what it was until he took it to the table and had them laughing their heads off. Both girls' benches stunningly quiet, shyly looking at the floor.
Not looking forward to going back this year. However, I don't know what byproducts from bodily functions can be left. :o

Making A List, Checking It Twice ...
 

Many, many, years ago, I used to carry both a wardrobe bag (jersey, jacket, pants), and an equipment bag (everything else). Showed up at a game site and realized that I had left the wardrobe bag at home. Too late to go back. No jacket, no problem. Pants? Luckily I had worn navy blue pants at my day job, so they had to do. Thank God that I didn't wear brown pants to work that day. Jersey? Back then, IAABO had us wearing gray jerseys, with blue piping, and we had to wear gray undershirts underneath. I had the gray undershirt, so that had to do that night. Never again. From that point on, I carry everything in one bag, and I double check it before I leave for a game.

End of halftime intermission. I am not administering the throwin at the division line. As players are moving out onto the floor, I happened to be standing in front of of one of the coaches, who politely asks me a quick question, and I respond with a quick answer, and move to my lead position as my partner is administering the throwin. Within seconds a pass is thrown out of bounds on my endlline. Easy call, except I forgot to put the whistle back in my mouth after speaking to the coach. As I yelled out the color, and pointed the direction, my partner, as the trail, sounded her whistle to stop the clock. She'll never let me live that down, and reminds me of the play every time we work together.

I guess this is where you are allowed to call a reach and over the back. :rolleyes:

Just hope your wife doesn't have to make a three second call on you. :eek:

Mark, I know you'll forgive me for actively seeking OT in these cases..

Then there was the time where my whistle failed as it was clogged with extra-spicy KY....

I apologizing in advance for making long stories our of short one, :D.

Crazy Moment: Ages (maybe it was eons) ago when the game was good and pure (meaning no AP Arrow), I had a girl's H.S. varsity game in the the Los Angles area, I don't remember the two schools involved.

We had a held ball and the ensuing jump ball was at one the of free throw lane circles (for the sake of this discussion it was at Team A's basket, unless you were playing a game under FIBA rules then we were at Team B's basket, :D, that would lead to another story about officiating in Los Angeles back then). I was the tosser. I entered the circle (my whistle was not in my mouth), got set and tossed the ball. It was one of my extremely rare bad tosses. B1 batted the ball toward her basket and B2 caught the batted ball and turned to start a fast break. My partner, apparently, did not think the toss was bad and started to cover the play. I couldn't grab my whistle for some reason, so I just yelled at the top of my lungs: WAIT!! My partner heard me, stopped play and I told him and the coaches what I had. We did the jump ball over again and every thing was right in the world of basketball.

Embarrassubg Moment, :o: It was in the mid-1990's and Daryl H. "The Preacher" Long and I were officiating in an AAU Girls Invitational at Michigan State University. One of the teams was being coached by Steve Mix. Steve Mix: is a native of Toledo, Ohio, was a star at The Univ. of Toledo, played for over ten years in the NBA for the Philadelphia 76'ers (he was also the color analyst for the radio broadcast for a number of years), and is now the color analyst for BCSN (the local cable sports channel in Toledo) during the H.S. basketball season) was coaching his daughter's team (the same daughter who would later star at Toledo Central Catholic H.S. and Villinova Univ.).

The game was in its second half and Mix's team had the ball in its front court. I was T, Table Side. M1 put up a shot and there a volleyball game developed in the lane. I saw M2 push a player from behind just as this player grabbed the loose ball.; I put air in the whistle for M2's foul. The only problem was that M2 and pushed M3, :eek:. Mix, Daryl, and I could not stop laughing at my mistake. :D

MTD, Sr.

Don't ever say this while visiting England. :D

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

championship games
 

I drove to a regional juco championship game with my partner 2.5 hours away. Purposely pressed 2 sets of stripes and pants. After we get to the site 2 hours before, we talked to the assigner and look around the gym. We pregamed (not drinking but couldve used a drink) and dress about 1 hr before game start. Realize my 2 sets of paints are hanging in my closet. Rush hour in the city meant it would take me 45 minutes minimum to get to the mall 3 miles away and buy black slacks I am sure has belt loops. So I decide against it and drive 4 blocks to a sporting goods store. They only have gray umpire pants...ughhh. really sweating now. Buy black jogging pants with lining and embarrassingly put them on for the game. My partners got a kick out if it and I was the only person to notice. Even at halftime my assigner didn't notice. The lining in the pants really made me sweat and the swishing noise of the pants when running annoyed me but my crew refereed great. I still hear it from my partners " remember when..."

I have forgotten a whistle and had to run back to locker room prior to tipoff.

Lanyard broke at first gv game. Refereed til half with whistle only. Spit out 2-3 times and had to pickup before getting the hang of putting hand to mouth.

Love this game...

Crawl Into A Corner ...
 

Been there. Done that. I discovered this, as the umpire, just before my partner was ready to toss. And, of course, the site director was nowhere to be found to unlock the locker room door.

Mine occurred doing my first year when I was calling JV ball. After my game and after changing, I had to walk back through the gym to get to my car out front. Well the varsity game that was about to start was a big rivalry and the home team was about to run out on the court for pregame warmups. Well after leaving the locker room and heading towards the only door that led to the gym I didn't notice the home team already lining up right behind the door for their entrance. I bypassed through them opened the door and started walking in the gym. At that point the home cheerleaders began backflipping, chanting, throwing each other in the air, and the crowd was going wild.

The only problem: I was the only one walking through the middle of the cheerleaders as they lined both sides of the door. I had my bag and walked straight down the middle of them as they finally realized I wasn't the home team. They all had to reset and do it all over again for the home team after I created this false alarm.

The Stripes Are A Chick Magnet ...
 

Cheerleaders really dig officials. This happens to me all the time.

Another crazy one......
 

JVB game a few yrs ago.

H has a male cheerleader. His entire appearance and demeanor indicate he is gay (not that there's anything wrong with that) and he is doing nothing to hide it.

He is very demonstrative, enthusiastic, and really into the game along the H endline. Midway through the fourth qtr one of the H players throws a baseball pass that misses his intended teammate and hits the male cheerleader right square in the groin!

He let out a very loud, non-masculine, high pitched - ooooooh! The entire crowd gasped. :eek:

He doubles over and walks toward the side of the court behind the bleachers in obvious discomfort. The crowd was absolutely stunned and the gym became absolutely quiet. Some smiling, some wincing, but no one missed it! I bit my whistle" in order to stop from laughing.......

He recovered after a few minutes......but, was a little "less enthusiastic" the rest of the game.

+1

ha! +1