These New Refs Ready For Fouls
The three Browne Elementary School girls held out their orange flags with authority. Drivers along Driscoll Boulevard on Spokane’s North Side looked in a hurry. Yet when the girls stepped out into the crosswalk, confident and sure, drivers waited patiently as students made their way across the busy street, guided by the girls in orange.
It was just a coincidence that the same day we admired the girls’ skills, the National Basketball Association announced that women had been hired as referees for the first time ever.
In the ‘50s and ‘60s in the Inland Northwest, crossing guards were called “patrol boys” and only boys could do this tough job. It took judgment, authority, leadership. Only boys, conventional wisdom said, could stop traffic and shepherd distracted students across busy streets. That conventional wisdom was finally challenged and by the ‘90s, girls, boys and even some adults guard the crosswalks.
Now, we have two National Basket Ball Association women referees - Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer. This is a prime-time first for women, although it’s really just a variation on the crossing guard theme. The jobs require similar skills - observation, timing, split-second judgment and an air of authority.
These new women refs feel ready and able. “I’m always confident I can do the job,” Kantner said. “Otherwise, I don’t think the NBA would have spent so much time and money on me.”
Grumbles have been grumbled. Charles Barkley, the Houston Rockets forward, says he will treat the women like “dogs.” He treats all refs that way and he also doesn’t think women should be refs. Dennis Rodman, the cross-dressing Chicago Bulls forward, says he’ll pay no heed to any directions about “acceptable behavior with the women.” If he feels like patting their behinds, he will.
The pioneer women refs say they’ll handle it. They don’t expect any special treatment, nor should they. They should expect some rough treatment and rough language from players and fans. And some chilly receptions from those men and women who don’t believe women belong on an NBA court.
Oh well. That’s the price of being the first women to do anything nontraditional. You have to be great technically. You have to possess a tough skin. You have to accept that the environment won’t change to accommodate you but, eventually, the environment will change because of you.
That’s the reality in the crosswalk and on the basketball court. Let the games begin.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rebecca Nappi For the editorial board