This....

and that sound you just heard was the top coming off the can-o-worms.

I like to take my jacket off at the same time as my partners, but some are slow. I take mine off during the announcements, turn it inside out (to keep dirt off the outside), and zip it back up and fold it.

It gets washed exactly never. Although I did learn to put hairspray on *before* putting my jacket on...the hard way. Now I just keep my hair very short.

Regarding extra whistles / lanyards -- I never carry one. If my whistle breaks -- we'll be waiting while I retrieve one. And it's unlikely that my noose will break.

Good programs and schools take our jackets in the locker room for us. ;)

Peace

I've found that most things that are going to go wrong do so at the start of the game. I don't need the needle after we adjust the ball to start. If I'm going to forget my normal whistle (never happened but I've loaned my spare out a few times...and sanitized it upon return), it will be at the start, not during the middle of the 3rd quarter. And, finally, if my smitty loop is going to break, it is probably going to break one of the first 2-3 times I use the whistle and spit it out.

How about when your smitty does break and you spit your whistle to the floor? (Its happened to me a couple times)

Isn't "muscle memory" grand?;)

You're supposed to catch it like the NBA guys do !!! :D :D :D

Jacket At Halftime ...
 

My jacket goes into the locker room with me at halftime, and stays there. All I have in my jacket pocket is a needle, and, as Camron Rust stated, the needle is probably only going to be used at the start of the game, I never had to let air out of a basketball at any time, in thirty-two years, other than at the start of the game. My extra whistle is in my pant's pocket, I use a noose lanyard, and hope that it doesn't break during the game. I tried a smitty, but had the loop break and immediately went back to the noose, and stayed with it. I once forgot my whistle and noose lanyard, left it in the locker room, before the game. I was the umpire, my partner was ready to toss, I went to grab my whistle to put it in my mouth, and it wasn't there. Stopped the game, had trouble finding the site director to unlock the locker room (of course), finally did, got my whistle, and lanyard, and came back into the gym to some sarcastic clapping from the crowd (I deserved it).

Hang 'Em High ...
 

We've got a couple of guys, mostly old timers, who don't use any lanyard. I tried it once, for fun, in a recreation game, and spit the whistle out and onto the floor several times in the first period. Between periods, I went into the locker room and got my lanyard. That was the first, and last time, that I will go comando.

I've had that happen. But, as I said, such failures I've encountered usually occur when you start using something...early in the game. It is weak and the first pull or two on it breaks it.

Because some officials who didn't have a HS game all year (or for several years) were assigned a HS playoff game.

My first CCA jacket had the lining ripped by the washer. i was doing some games at my church and wanted to wear a jacket but not my HS jacket -- already put up for the spring and it wasn't a HS league -- so I wore the old CCA one just because it was old. I would have taken the patch off if it had it been easy (and had I checked on whether it would have been easy) but I didn't see the point of buying a blank jacket. Honestly no one knew what it was except another official.

Are you kidding?

Agreed. The one time my loop broke, it was when I was attaching the whistle.