- el

It stands to reason that when you or I can earn hundreds of
dollars, or probably more than a >1,000 over a three-month period,
money that comes to us in addition to our weekly earnings, you and
I are not going to attempt to diminish this extra coin, if we can
help 1%,

Aren't we, then, at the mercy of the physical director
(graduate manager or coach) who hires us froin time to time?

What would be our feelings toward e team (at a subsequent
game) should its coach display an objection to our officiating?

The answers are obvious, and, being human, you or I would
feel as bitter as anyone else -- however fair we would try to be,

Basketball, because of its make-up, probably needs more
competent officiating than baseball or football, It needs a system
where the physical director (graduate manager or coach) as remote
as possible from the officiating element.

Is such a Utopian system possible? I think it is.

It is my belief that if a Coumissioner (or a Commission of
three) were selected by the New England colleges, empowered to
assign all officials to college games, the game will be greatiy
enhanced. If such a Czar (or a Commission cf thtee) were to perform
such assigning roles, the referees would feel that they were the
choice, not of the home team, but of BOTH teams, svectators and all.
In other words, by popular approval:

None of us even for a moment can imegine that an American
League umpire, working at Fenway Park, is en employee of the Boston
Red Sox, and, when this same umpire appears at the Yankee Stadium,
is a hireling of the, New York Yankees! The reasonab!e explana~ion
is that-hé rees/fPon h@abGtarters, and not fron the cont dine teams,

In analyzing my suggested plan, leifs over-look th. elesent
of traveling expenses so that the scheme would be clearer, Unoer
tne proposed system, all colleges would forward, at the start of
each basketball season, @ sum of money covering the cost of of-
ficiating. Suppose a college pléys 10 none ganes in a given season
and each official receives 315.00 per contest. Tne officiating
would cost $300.00 for the season, Upon being advised that a veferee
worked a contest assigned to. him, the Commissioner (Commission of
three) will forward him his ‘check for ,;15.00. In such an instance,
the assignment officials will not regard themselves as employees
of the home team, nor look upon their fees as compensation received
from the home team, nor fear that, in tne face of an honest but
adverse decision, the home team will cease accepting him in future
eantests,

It is interesting to voint out that in sectional games, such
as those staged at the Medison Square Garden, Philadelphia, etc.,
the teams don't look upon the referees as employees of their oppon-
ents, 4nd undoubtedly, these officials, receiving their fees from
a third party, don't give a hoot es to who wins, or how angry this
or that coach is! The official tries to do his best because he knows
that, if he does his best, the promoter will want him beck, irress.
pective of how many times the "home team" may lose,

Some may say that it would be cimost impossible to find a
capable Commissioner (or Commission of three) in 211 New England,

Football has its Commissioner, why can't basketball?

If all New England can't provide one (or a Commission of three)
it is a sorrowful state of affairsm sorrowful for the manhood of
this section, and also of the physical directors (graduate managers,
or coaches) for not being able to agree upon either one or three
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