Old SI article on Tommy Bell and his Crew
 

I stumbled upon this and thought it was a good read. Almost 40 years later, not a whole lot has changed.

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.c...13/1/index.htm

Great article. I remember most all the names mentioned but don't know if I ever read that article before. Thanks.

One thing seems to have changed, the tone of the article suggests officials 40 years ago were respected for their pursuit of perfection, whereas today they tend more to be ridiculed for every instance of failing to attain absolute perfection.

Perhaps the difference is not so much with the level of performance as it is with how unreasonable the expectations have become.

Thanks for posting that. Nice article

I'd agree with this. We live in a time with instant replay, high-definition TVs and multiple angle shots on every play. Alot of people just don't understand that the angles an official gets during the play won't always be as good as what they see on television.

What makes it worst is the video camera, the handycam. People see the replays and slo-mo on high definition television where the networks deploy a wealth of cameras and now every parent believes they can replicate that effort with their $298 handycam.

It always amazes me when the biggest, fattest guy in the stands yells out, "how come you didn't cover that?"

It hasn't happened to me yet, but I could see this occur: A parent runs up to you at the end of Saturday youth game (or even halftime) and demands you watch his little handycam because he believes you blew a call. Saturday games usually provide no locker room and very little crowd control, so I could definitely see this happening.

It happened during a baseball game I was working (and assigned) when a parent didn't like a call I made. I told him to send it to the assignor.

It happened to me several years ago with a parent who was standing on the sideline near me as a wing. I think it might have been a still camera but he wanted me to look at a hold that we missed. I smiled and walked away. They weren't being rude or obnoxious about it.

I had a AAU basketball game in which the game winning shot was an uncontested 3/4 court heave. Coach brought me a cam-corder after the game claiming the player travelled.

I had that happen in a soccer game I was working once. It was at halftime and I don't remember what exactly the beef was but the guy wanted me to look at his video. I just politely told him tha I had no interest in looking at his video and regardless of what was on the video, nothing was changing and then walked away.

Nostalgia. Tommy Bell spoke at our annual association dinner back in like 1975. Tommy was not tall at 5'8" but had a commanding presence -- Note: he was also a University of Kentucky alum like me. A lesson that has stuck with me from that day forward was the inspiration he gave Burl Toler at the start of the season after the missed down. He basically said to Burl forget about that lost down and go forward.

"Only a year after starting out as a Kentucky high school official in 1955, Bell was working both football and basketball in the Southeastern Conference"

Wow.

"two NCAA basketball championship games (San Francisco-Iowa in 1956 and California-West Virginia in 1959)"

He had a good connection as he played football at Kentucky for Paul "Bear" Bryant.