Hall of Fame recognition

I have had the good fortune to be able to attend several Hall of Fame inductions in the last 20 years. The first was for one of my high school basketball coaches; one for a friend that was of a member great Jr. College football team and last Saturday night when Virg McCrady was inducted into the Spokane Basketball Officials’ Hall of Fame.

As a former player; as a coach and as a guy that runs the shot clock at Bronco home games it was a bit interesting to see all of the referees without their black and white striped shirts on. I recognized a fair amount of these refs and a fair amount seemed to look at me as if they had seen me somewhere before.

This Hall of Fame induction was supposed to take place in 2020 but the world was put on hold and all of the important things we would have liked to have done were either canceled or postponed. It was a fun night as recognition was given to 2022-23 referees for their work. There were 10 Hall of Fame inductees and I knew a couple of them when they came to Gilson Gym. There were thank yous and stories and the reasons for reffing always seemed to revolve around the kids that played the game. It’s a way of giving back and these officials were a bit emotional when they told their reasons for reffing and it seemed that each one never blew a call. Well the ones that said it had a smile on their face.

When it was time to induct Virg one of the guys that had reffed with him had a story to tell. He said that he and Virg had a game to ref in Pasco at Columbia Basin College. The guy picked Virg up in Ritzville and Virg started telling a story. The story ended when they got to the college. After the game was over Virg said he had another story to tell and Virg didn’t stop until they got to his house. Now the guy jokingly said that he couldn’t wait to get Virg out of the car for some peace and quiet. No one knows if Virg was nervous about the other ref’s driving ability.

Another story was told about a game that Virg was reffing in Reardan. Early in the game the action was up and down the court with full court pressure. The teams were running up the court away from the entry doors in what is now called Smith gym with only one official. Apparently as Virg was near the doors of the gym he tripped and rolled into the entryway and hit the wall. As he got up and brushed himself off he saw a few people he knew and was saying hi to Jim and Bob and then it was back to the game. Virg was never one to not acknowledge others.

His wife Joanne came up to accept the plaque for the many years Virg gave to the game of basketball. She said that Virg loved basketball. He also reffed a couple of seasons of football but didn’t enjoy it like he did basketball.

She too had a story to tell. She said that one night many years ago he was reffing a game in Harrington. They were playing Odessa in a big rivalry game. At some time early in the game the ball went out of bounds and one of the coaches picked it up but didn’t give it back. Virg asked the coach three times for the ball and finally after the third time he tossed it back to Virg. The crowd was laughing and the intensity level subsided. Virg won the crowd over with diplomacy that night.

When I was in high school our coaches asked Virg if he would ref a scrimmage so that we would know what to expect in a regular game. Apparently some players might get away with a foul or two in practice. Virg even reffed some of our Labor Day football scrimmages under the lights and we appreciated his expertise. Even though he would ref those scrimmages he would never ref a game when a Ritzville team was playing and I respected that.

I have a lot of memories of Virg telling a joke or a story and I appreciated what Virg meant to sports and the youth of the region. I’m not sure I ever saw an official work as hard in a game as Virg McCrady did. This HOF recognition was long overdue.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].