Sixth of a series...
For
as long as basketball has been played, the men and women who have
officiated it have been looked to for a unique code of conduct and
an unwavering sense of integrity.
And,
to their credit, that has been the case for the vast majority of the
history of the game.
But
the impression of the officiating community took a tremendous hit in
July of 2007 when it was revealed NBA referee Tim Donaghy had been
betting on games and fixing them for at least two years.
To
someone like Jefferson's Bill Brainard, that incident must have been
like a body blow, because in more than 25 years of basketball
officiating, Brainard was the embodiment of integrity. Brainard
never worked games above the high school level during his career,
but he was always looked to as someone who put the game and its
participants in the spotlight and did everything he could to keep it
off himself or his partner, all the while maintaining a supreme
sense of control.
To
the people that knew him, Brainard was the symbol of what an
official should be.
"Bill
enjoyed the game, but he had command of the game," retired
Pymatuning Valley boys coach Bob Hitchcock said. "He never tried to
make the officiating the highlight of the game."
"Bill
was the kind of guy who officiated because he loved the game and he
loved kids," retired Grand Valley boys coach Tom Henson said. "He
was there to assist in making sure the game went well. He was not
there to be the show.
"Bill
was happiest when the game was over that you didn't even realize
he'd been there. He was happy to be part of the game, but he never
wanted to BE the game."
Brainard also felt it was important to have the next generation of
officials maintain the same standards.
"Bill
helped my career a lot," Phil Garcia, one of today's most highly
regarded officials, said. "I consider him one of my officiating
mentors. I always looked up to Bill as an official and a friend."
Brainard's youngest son, Scott, said his father wanted to make sure
the games he worked were done in as seamless a manner as possible.
After he left officiating, he always looked for officials who
followed the same code.
"It
was very important for my dad to be very professional," young
Brainard said from his home in Texas. "He always made sure he got to
games early, he always wanted to look professional, show that he
knew the mechanics and he always made sure he acted professionally.
"After he stopped officiating, he would always watch other officials
to see how they conducted themselves. The ones who took the
professional approach to the game always stood out to him."
His
approach to the game and his emphasis on it, along with his work as
the commissioner of the once-proud and now defunct Grand River
Conference, made Brainard's selection into the Class of 2009 of the
Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation Hall of Fame an easy
decision.
Brainard's selection to the basketball hall puts him in rather
exclusive company. He is just the sixth person to have membership in
the county's football and basketball shrines, having entered the
Ashtabula County Football Hall of Fame in 2007. He shares that
distinction with Geneva's Dale Arkenburg, Ashtabula's Gene Gephart,
Jefferson's Chuck Naso and broadcasters Jim Cordell and Pat Sheldon.
Unfortunately, Brainard will not be on hand March 29 for his
induction at the ACBF Banquet at the Conneaut Human Resources
Center. He was claimed Jan. 18 by cancer at age 82.
Somehow, though, his son believes he will be smiling down on the
proceedings.
"My
dad would be very humbled by this," Scott Brainard, who will accept
his father's award, said. "He enjoyed playing basketball and he
always enjoyed officiating it.
"He'd
be real proud to be in the company of a lot of the coaches and
players that are already in there. He'd be very pleased."
Playing days
Not
many people know that Brainard was an avid player in his youth and
for years afterward. He played at Jefferson High School before he
graduated in 1944, but it didn't stop then.
Brainard became a key figure with the renowned Clinton Drugs team
sponsored by the Jefferson pharmacy of the era. He remained active
as a player for many years with the team that included players like
ACBF Hall of Famer Jim Dolan of Willamsfield and featured top
graduated high school and college players from as far away as
Cleveland and south into Trumbull County.
"Dad
loved to play," Scott Brainard said. "He played until he was well
into his 40s. He also helped coach Clinton Drugs. He knew everybody
and everybody knew him."
Officiating days
It
just seemed to be a natural transition from playing and coaching to
officiating. He got started in the late 1950s. Brainard had his own
group of mentors in officiating.
"Bill
worked a lot of games with the old group of officials like Henry
Garvey and Lou Pavolino," Hitchcock, another ACBF Hall of Famer,
said.
Hitchcock first became acquainted with Brainard as a standout player
at Pymatuning Valley.
"My
experience with Bill as a player was that he was always in control
of the game," he said. "He didn't try to become the show himself.
"He
seemed to have a knack for defusing tense situations. He had a way
of making a comment to the player that usually got him calmed down
and still didn't call attention to himself."
Hitchcock recalled hearing some amusing stories about Brainard's
officiating at PV game before the school system got the spacious
gymnasium it now occupies.
"When
I played, we had a pretty good following," Hitchcock said. "By 6
p.m., the halls at the school were full of people and people were
packed along the sidelines and the baseline.
"Bill
told me he didn't usually enjoy working games at PV back then
because he'd be running up and down the sidelines and people were
trying to trip him. You were supposed to have an open lane behind
the basket to the wall, too, but people were back there, too, and he
always used to have to clear the lane, and as soon as he went to the
other end, it filled up again. He used to laugh and say he got a lot
of help officiating down at PV."
Dealing with coaches
Brainard and Henson can attest to how he dealt with coaches. That
was especially true for Henson, yet another Hall of Famer who is
renowned for his competitive nature.
"There were times when Bill could have laid coaches out, me
included," Henson said. "He talked to me about officiating games
with guys like (Geneva Hall of Famer) Al Bailey (another coach well
known for his temper) and maintaining control.
"The
first two or three years I was back at Grand Valley as a young
coach, Bill helped me gain a better appreciation of what conditions
officials are operating under. I came to realize they are just
trying to do their job. He was trying to maintain control."
For
his part, Brainard, perhaps because of his own coaching and playing
background, had a unique sensitivity to what coaches endured and how
they tried to conduct their program.
"I
remember early in the years I was coaching and Bill worked a game up
at our old school," Henson said. "The officials used to dress in our
coaches' office and after one game, Bill invited me in after the
kids had left.
"We
talked for quite a while and he was very complimentary of the
direction he felt our program was going. You know, I don't remember
if we won or lost that game, and it doesn't matter, because the
thing that mattered more to me was our talk."
He
didn't hesitate to take young officials under his wing, either.
"What
a great guy and a great official Bill was!" Garcia said. "He was one
of my mentors, along with (the late) Bud Ruland (from Madison) and
Bill Sopchak (from Painesville)."
Scott
Brainard said there were coaches his father always admired, even
though he didn't play favorites.
"Dad
always talked about (Geneva Hall of Famer) Bill Koval," he said. "He
took me to Mr. Koval's camp (in Pine Ridge, Pa.) when I was playing.
I remember when I was a freshman, he took me to a Geneva-Conneaut
game and Dad introduced me to Mr. Koval. That meant a lot to me.
"I
know he thought a lot of Tom Henson and Bob Hitchcock, too."
Brainard also admired the work of several of his officiating
colleagues.
"I
know he respected Bud Ruland a lot," Scott said. "He always liked
Bill Sopchak, too.
"He
was always very complimentary of (Garcia). He thought Phil always
conducted himself professionally. There was no doubt in his calls
and he was always in position. He thought a lot of Jerry Raffenaud,
too."
Because he was concerned about leaving any impression of partiality,
Brainard avoided working games involving Jefferson football games
involving his older son, Richard, a 1972 graduate, or basketball
games that included Scott, a 1981 Falcon product. When he became GRC
commissioner, he stopped working any conference games, opting for
NEC games instead.
"He
didn't want anyone to think there was any favoritism," Scott said.
His
son said Brainard would probably not have been a fan of three-person
officiating crews used almost routinely today, although not for
reasons one might expect.
"He
thought it was bad for the schools financially, especially the
smaller schools, because he felt it cost them too much," Scott said.
The commish
As
much as anything, Hitchcock and Henson admired Brainard for the work
he did to try and keep the GRC, a league that seemed to constantly
be in transition, going.
"Bill
did everything he could to try and keep the GRC together," Henson
said. "I remember he did all he could to keep the league going.
"He
used to have us over to his home for all-conference voting. He had
us over at the house many times for conference meetings, too. And
Betty (Brainard's wife of 58 years) was a great hostess. Both Bill
and Betty were very good at taking care of people."
"When
he retired from officiating, Bill became the commissioner,"
Hitchcock said. "I know he always tried to make sure he assigned
officials to games that matched the coaches' personalities."
After the GRC
Eventually, Scott Brainard got into coaching himself and looked to
his father for advice.
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"My dad was somebody who always wanted to stay involved," Scott
said. "When I was coaching, he used to come to my practices and
I'd ask him to come out and talk to the kids. He'd explain to
kids how to get position, how to post up, all that stuff.
"But my dad never told me how to do things. He was the kind of
person who wanted you to make your own mistakes and to learn
yourself. He might talk to you about it afterward, but it was
always constructive criticism."
There is usually a sense of an adversarial relationship between
coaches and officials. Hitchcock and Henson both count
themselves fortunate that they had the opportunity to become
much more with Brainard. |
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"If
Bill was working one of my games, and I didn't win, I never held it
against him," Hitchcock said. "I know Bill was a major factor in
supporting Jefferson athletics, but we used to talk about the
rivalry between PV and Jefferson and, you know, it never was so much
about the outcome of a game as it was about the relationships."
"After I was done coaching, Bill and I got to be personal friends,"
Hitchcock said. "We socialized together. He was a great friend."
Henson believes Brainard is more worthy of his place in the ACBF
Hall of Fame than he and is more excited about Brainard's induction
than his own.
"There's no doubt in my mind that Bill is worthy of being in the
Hall of Fame," he said. "When I think of me being in the Hall of
Fame, I think a lot of it is because of my longevity in coaching.
You can take all that and multiply what Bill has done many times
over."
Henson admired the way Brainard always tried to avoid the limelight.
"Bill
did so much behind the scenes," he said. "He just loved to be a part
of kids' lives."
Brainard
earned his stripes