4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2008
REFEREE (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
of his hotel, airfare and rental car reservations.
"He never has a round trip," Linda said. "He's always going from one game site to another. It's difficult. I get on three or four or five sites to get the best fares for him."
Welmer is paid $1,000 per game plus $200 for expenses and is compensated for the cost of round-trip coach airfare. Because Welmer goes straight from one city to the next, he can collect extra money from the airfare and ends up making more than the $1,000 per game fee.
Because referees are independent contractors, they receive no benefits such as health insurance, social security or a retirement fund and must pay for those expenses out of their own pocket.
"All of us have pretty good accountants," Welmer said. "Our tax return last year was 52 pages long. It's something that I would no more attempt to do than try to fly a jet airplane."
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Welmer's interest in officiating began in the late 1960s while playing high school basketball for the Bulldogs at Columbus North High School, formerly known as Columbus Senior High, in
Columbus, Ind. During Welmer's senior season, the Bulldogs went 23-3 thanks in large part to his teamhigh 18 points and 14 rebounds a game. When Welmer and his teammates weren't practicing or playing, they were refereeing junior high games on Saturday mornings.
Columbus High coach Bill
Columbus Stearman had them referee to get some exercise and sharpen their knowledge of the rules. Welmer liked officiating so much that when he went to the University of Evansville in Evansville, Ind., to play basketball, he refereed intramural games
two nights a week for $5 a game.
University of Evansville in Division II back then, everywhere we went people hated us," Welmer said. "If a Division II school beat Evansville, their season had been successful."
"It was a way to stay around the game and make a few extra bucks. Low and behold, it just grew to what it is now."
During his freshman year at Evansville, Welmer finished fifth in the country with a 29.7 points per game average. In his junior year, he led Evansville to the 1971 NCAA Division II National Championship with 19.7 points and 12.6 rebounds per game.
"It wasn't quite like playing at UCLA, but when you played at the
Welmer, who shares being a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame with Larry Bird and Oscar Robertson, among others, scored
STEVE WELMER
College basketball referee
more than 1,000 points in his college career and ranks eighth in Evansville's history with 8.2 rebounds per game. He was inducted into the Evansville Hall of Fame in 1986 and held the school's single game and career field goal record for 19 years.
After graduation, Welmer played two years in the International Basketball League before working with his father at a beer distributing company. During his spare time, he made extra money by refereeing high school games, including three state finals by age 34.
"It was a way to stay around the game and make a few extra bucks," Welmer said. "Low and behold, it just grew to what it is now."
Photo contributed by Steve and Linda Welme
Welmer worked his first Division I game in 1981 at the University of Dayton and began what would become a life-long career as one of the top officials in the business.
THE DAILY GRIND
Though Steve Welmer spent only five nights in his Tampa home from Oct. 30 to Feb. 1, Welmer never went more than two weeks without seeing his wife, Linda. She files to meet Welmer on the road to give him massages and do his laundry.
Welmer's schedule is arguably as busy as any referee in the history of officiating, working 124 games in 145 days during this past season. Welmer called games 16 days in a row early in the season, took two days off, then worked another 16 days in a row. Welmer officiated 32 games in 34 days leading up to Christmas break.
After three days to spend the holidays with his family, Welmer then began another string of 15 consecutive games.
"They call me kind of a freak," Welmer said, referring to his frantic
Referee Steve Welmer watches as Sherron Collins and Texas Tech's Alan Voskuil dive for a loose ball during Senior Night earlier this year at Allen Fieldhouse. Welmer regularly officiates six games a week and worked as many as 16 days in a row on several different occasions last season.
schedule.
Welmer has a daily routine he must follow to arrive at the next game on time and be rested enough to run up and down the court with well-conditioned college athletes.
He wakes up each morning at 4:30 or 5 to catch the first flight out of town to get to his next city.
"I've found out in all of my travels that if you run into bad weather, usually the planes that go out first thing in the morning are always there from the night before," Welmer said. "That flight's going to go."
When Welmer arrives in the city of his next game by late morning, he grabs a bowl of soup for lunch at the airport, checks into his hotel, turns off his cell phone and climbs into bed for an afternoon nap. Welmer said he took a two to three hour nap every day.
After awakening from his siesta, Welmer showers, shaves and meets fellow officials for the drive to the arena. After the game, Welmer returns to the hotel and munches on a light meal.
Mindy Ricketts/KANSAN
"I'm not a real big eater," Welmer said. "I can't eat right before a game or right after a game."
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Bryan Marvin/KANSAN
Despite being away from home for long periods at a time, Welmer never goes more than two weeks without seeing his wife. If he can't make it home, Linda travels to see her husband so that she can ease his muscles with a massage or to do his laundry.
Welmer climbs into bed between 11 and 12 and the process begins again the next morning when he hears the alarm clock a mere five hours later.
At home she watches every game that her husband referees on TV.
From Jan. 12 to Jan. 19, Welmer officiated a game in Columbia, Mo., Bloomington, Ind., Lawrence, Boulder, Colo. Champaign, Ill., Denton, Texas, and Ann Arbor, Mich.
"I'm very independent," Linda said. "I have to be"
Though Welmer has his daily schedule down to a science, some coaches express concern that as more referees such as Welmer make officiating their full-time job, the referees may be officiating too many games.
WHEN IS ENOUGH
ENOUGH?
Some coaches worry referees are too fatigued to work games on consecutive days or don't have enough time to study game film of themselves to
"I'm very independent. I have to be."
improve their performance.
number of games they referee," said Dale Kelly, coordinator of officials for the Big 12, Conference USA, Southland, Sunbelt and Ohio Valley conferences. "I'm going to take the most experienced guys who are available."
"All coaches will say that officials work too much," Kansas coach Bill Self said.
Referees have no limit to the number of games they may work each week. Because referees are paid by the game, those who consider it their career cram as many games into their schedule as possible to make more money.
LINDA WELMER
Wife of Steve Welmer
"We have no control over the
Former Indiana and Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight, known for his clashes with referees, said in his recent book, "Knight: My Story," that referees were becoming overworked.
ESPN analyst and former Notre Dame basketball coach Digger Phelps said, "I don't think they should work five games a week. I know I'm tired traveling three days a week, I don't know how these guys can work five games in a week. I think it really wears them down."
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"There's no way a guy over 30 can just physically work six games a week well, and here we're talking about guys who are over forty and fifty," Knight wrote. "It's ridiculous that the NCAA doesn't step in and say the maximum number of games anybody can work in a week is three, and even that's one too many. Except for conference tournaments, teams play only two games a week, and that's kids 20 years old in excellent condition with substitutes available."
While conferences said that they didn't have enough money to pay officials as full-time employees, critics argued that the NCAA—with its $6 billion contract over 11 years with CBS for the NCAA Tournament every March—has plenty of money to bring officials under one roof and limit the number of games they can work.
Legendary referee Ed Hightower, who has worked 12 Final Four tournaments and officiated the championship game between Kansas and Memphis a couple of weeks ago, has a full-time job as superintendent of the Edwardsville, Ill., school district. He works three to four games each week as a part-time official for the Big 10, Big 12 and Big East conferences and said a referee should not be judged only by the number of games he worked.
"The money is there, the NCAA has the money," Phelps said. "I mean $6 billion over 11 years and you can't pay your officials? It has to come down to where these guys should not work more than three games a week."
"You have to look at each person's performance and if that person's performance is lacking, then you have a
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