Funniest thing you heard a fan say
 

I heard a new one the other night during my first varsity game of the season.



"I am going to become a ref when I go blind!"

I thought it was unique. Never heard that before. I've heard references to being blinded but never in that manner. Very creative!

"Good Call Ref!"

C'mon, where's the credibility? ;)

My reply would have been: "So, that would be yesterday?"

"Hey ref! 401k. Think about it."

Where do I begin?
 

I don't know where to start. But there is one incident that I remember (basically because it happened less than ten years ago, :D) well.

The incident happened before Mark, Jr., became a basketball official.

My first game of the year (the year of the incident) was a boys' JrHS (7th/8th grade) DH at School A. Team A was blown out in both games by Team B. The fans of Team A were not very happy with the officiating and they constantly let us know it. Two days later, my second game of the season was another boys' JrHS (7th/8th grade) DH at School C and the visiting school was Team A from two days earlier. After the 7th grade game which Team A won, a couple of fans of Team A told me that my partner and I did a great game and tha the officials who officiated their game two days earlier were the worst officials he had ever seen, :eek:.

MTD, Sr.

Oh, if you try hard, I'll bet you can figure it out.

See, I knew you could do it.

Sophomore Boys game in Des Moines between two city schools. I had to wear my glasses, and about halfway through the 2nd quarter, I nailed the home team FT shooter for stepping over the line.

Half way up the stands behind me, I heard "Take your glasses off."

Freshman boys
 

In a gym that will hold around 3000, we had about 75 attending this game. The opening tip went into a corner of the court where we had a held ball. In an almost silent gym a parent says, "come on ump, call it both ways."

Girls grade school. Goofball partner wore a blue tooth device and said it was since he was "on call" At halftime a fan approached him and said "hey at least you wont miss a call................

...on the Way to the Forum
 

MS 5/6 grade boys coach's last word before sitting down after receiving a merited T: "That's why you'll always be a middle school ref!" :mad:
Very next night, same coach as a fan standing at the doorway just off the endline in his home gym while my partners and I were nailing a conference title game with his school's boys' varisty team playing: "......................................" :D

Had a fan stop us after a football game adamant that we missed many horse collar tackles.

After we let her rant for 20 seconds, we asked her what a horse collar tackle was. She didn't have an answer, so she stormed away.

hey ref.....found your cell phone. it has 5 missed calls. I had to chuckle.

6th Grade AAU
 

I guess this is a fan/coach interaction, but I'm new so I can bend the rules a little, right?

6th grade AAU. This happened two days ago. Player A gets his 5th foul, or so we thought. The scorebook signals it was only his 4th, which confused everyone in the gym, including me. I went with the book, so he wasn't fouled out. Later found out the scorekeeper was player A's mom(she won't be back at that position).

Some older gentleman yells across the gym, as the kid keeps on playing, "That young man has fouled out!"

Player A's coach, yells back "Shut up @--hole" in a fairly quiet gym. I missed him saying this, or it would have been a T.

6th grade? Set a positive example, coach.

So, who heard him? Your partner? Given the level of the game, he may have had to listen to the remainder of the game on his car radio.

First game back after a long hiatus from officiating and my wife thought it would be fun to be there with the kids to support me (big mistake - at one point one of the kids turned to her and said "Mom - why's everyone yelling at dad?"). Anyway, she's sitting behind the boy's coach for Team A while the girls game is going on and someone sits down next to him and asks him how the officials are tonight. The coach's reply was "Old and older."

I got to know the coach over the next couple of seasons and told him that story after he had transitioned out of coaching to administration. He seemed really embarrassed by the statement but I assured him it was one of my favorites.