#Officiating April 12

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For the month of April several of us are taking on the “30-Day Conversation Coach4aday Challenge“. Today’s dialog is about a conversation between college coaches and an official.

Scott Colclough was one of my former assistant coaches and he was very close to Danny Roberts a Hall of Fame Coach at Campbell University. Scott told me a great story about Coach Roberts being hoodwinked by an opposing coach and getting frustrated with questioning the OFFICIATING.

Danny Roberts -Basketball Coach at Campbell

April Conversation Challenge

The overarching aim for the 30-Day Conversation Coach4aday Challenge is to engage or to repeat conversations and disseminate them. Whether these conversations hold valuable lessons, shareable insights, or are simply a mishmash of thoughts, the goal remains to foster connection and potential learning experiences for all involved.

Rules of the Challenge

First brevity is the key. Second it is not necessary to fully identify the parties involved but writing it like a script might be helpful. Third the conversations being shared can come from personal experiences, books, films, TV shows, or are imaginations.

Do this daily for 30 Days posting on social media with the hashtag #Coach4adayChallenge

April 12th-Danny Roberts and Bill Miller

Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s small college basketball was nothing like you see today. The gyms were small and the crowds large. The officiating was questionable and home cooking was often the order of the day when you played on the road.  The talent was fabulous schools that are Division I today in North Carolina were all small schools. Elon, Western Carolina, Gardner-Webb, High Point, UNC Asheville, and Campbell were all part of NAIA.

Campbell played a basketball game at Elon.  Elon’s basketball coach name was Bill Miller and he was legendary in the state for being eccentric to say the least. Coach Miller was a great teacher of the game. His teams played hard and were very well coached. His antics on the sidelines were epic and the word on the street was that officials were intimated by Bill. He coached at Elon from 1959-1979.

This game was validating to Danny Roberts that officials at Elon were biased. The game involved a series of block/charge calls that all went against the Camels of Campbell. Danny became more exasperated with each call.

The Gotcha

You have to know some things about Danny to appreciate this story fully. He coached at a strict Baptist school where dancing, drinking, and profanity were frowned on. Danny was mild mannered and a southern gentleman. Bill Miller on the other hand was hard charging coach, a man who would take a drink or two or three and cursed like nobody’s business.

After the 6^th block/charge call of the night Danny jumps up and goes to the scorer’s table and states no way that was a block against Campbell but a charge against Elon. The referee heads to scorer’s table and tells Danny to get back to his bench. As Danny walks away he mumbles under his breath that call was terrible. The official shouts out what did you say? Without hesitation Bill Miller jumps off his bench gets right in front of the official and says he just called you a “Son of a Bitch”. The ref blows his whistle and assesses Danny Roberts with a technical foul for something Bill Miller said he said. Danny was incredulous and Bill Miller walked back to his bench smiling.