Who was your favorite ,colorful, hated, despised Ref ?
- Thread starter matt105
- Start date
GeorgiaRed
Well-known member
Larry Lembo was a favorite of mine. Mickey Crowley most memorable and Dick Slomkowski most hated.
and may I add Tim Higgins
Honzo gave us more calls than anyone.
I was just about to say he was my favorite if I had one. I talked to him one time when he was overseeing the MAAC officials. Looked like he would rather be anywhere else, but was real nice and talked for a few minutes.
My favorite cheer was "Higgins, you bum". One night I must have been extra loud because he tried to stare me down and my wife thought I was going to get a technical. I also referred to him as the Pillsbury Dough Boy.
Met up with him last winter. He’s actually a great guy off the court. His wife told me a story of a St. John’s fan calling their house once after a game in a threatening manner.
ok which member here was it ?
I think I told this story on here once before. We were winning big at Alumni Hall (it wasn’t renamed yet) and Mahoney emptied the bench. The last player on the bench was a walk-on, Ron DeQuerioz. While play was going on with about 4 minutes to go, he approached the scorer’s table to check in at the next stoppage of play. Well play kept going on and with a little more than a minute left, after a missed shot and rebound, Crowley starts up the court and starts limping like he hurt himself and blows his whistle to stop play. As he tries to walk it off, the other official (Larry Lembo IIRC) comes over and asks him what was wrong. He replied, “Nothing, I just wanted to get the kid at the table into the game.” He walks around for a few more seconds, says he was good to go and waived DeQuerioz in.
Which refs do college basketball coaches most, least like to see in a big game? ‘I love me some Teddy’
At the behest of St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca, Big East supervisor of officials Art Hyland once arrived at the league’s annual coaches’ meetings with a picture book. Inside were headshots of each of the Big East’s officials, created to help the notoriously bad with names Carnesecca...
www.nytimes.com
2021 Article
“At the behest of St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca, Big East supervisor of officials Art Hyland once arrived at the league’s annual coaches’ meetings with a picture book. Inside were headshots of each of the Big East’s officials, created to help the notoriously bad with names Carnesecca properly assign his grievances. “I didn’t know what they looked like,’’ Carnesecca says. “But I knew I didn’t like them.’’”
Treasure Coast Johnny
Member
I think Honzo was the only ref who was ever announced along with the St John’s starting lineup. Once voted sixth man of the year by SJ students.
I played for Manhattan Prep when Larry was a star at Manhattan on one of their best teams, along with Matt Link from Molloy and Lenny S from Loughlin. We shared facilities w those guys and they were just great people. So, I always pulled for Lembo as a ref and found him fair. He was also a very good baseball player and somewhat of a softball star in his forties I recall.
maidstoner
New member
I’m going back to the old ECAC days, does any one remember Edwin Murphy? He was a lead official in many of those old ECAC games. He had to leave officiating to do a bad heart if I recall. I worked for him when he was chief clerk of Queen Family Court, He was a real gentleman and a great boss.
Alumni Hall
Well-known member
I became pretty good friends with the majority of the refs during my time at SJU. Many would come on campus hours before the game for therapy. I always set them up with our team docs if they needed to be seen or get a quick X-ray and always helped fill their prescription needs and OTC meds from my supply. Mickey Crowley, knowing my wife and I enjoyed golf, sponsored me as a member at Pt Jeff Country Club. Larry Lembo hired my wife to be the first athletic trainer at Queensboro Community College. I used to run into Burr, Higgins and other Big East refs at Saratoga during racing season. The one rule we always had was NEVER discuss game calls!
I always made sure one of my managers was assigned to the referees each game, both at Carnesecca and MSG. Heck, I used to check in with them on the road to see if they needed anything as many other trainers could care less about them. There were times my mangers would drive them back to LaGuardia or JFK to make a flight as cabs and car service was spotty in Queens in the old days. Through efforts of myself and the AT at GTown years ago, we convinced the Big East to start yearly physicals for refs and making sure each ref had every cell # of BE trainers in case of emergency and and a defined list of food, drinks and supplies (ice and hot packs) in each ref locker room. Not sure if that still goes on…win or lose I always kept a professional friendship with them and I’m still friends with some to this day!
I always made sure one of my managers was assigned to the referees each game, both at Carnesecca and MSG. Heck, I used to check in with them on the road to see if they needed anything as many other trainers could care less about them. There were times my mangers would drive them back to LaGuardia or JFK to make a flight as cabs and car service was spotty in Queens in the old days. Through efforts of myself and the AT at GTown years ago, we convinced the Big East to start yearly physicals for refs and making sure each ref had every cell # of BE trainers in case of emergency and and a defined list of food, drinks and supplies (ice and hot packs) in each ref locker room. Not sure if that still goes on…win or lose I always kept a professional friendship with them and I’m still friends with some to this day!