Malcolm in the middle of the action again

He turned 61 years old Sunday, but Dan Malcolm shows no signs of slowing down.

He’s eligible to retire from his day job, as a concrete/asphalt salesman. He’s been officiating high school basketball and football well before man walked on the moon. But his plan at the moment is to keep selling more yards of concrete and tooting his whistle on fall Fridays and two or more nights a week in the winter.

Malcolm, the oldest hoop referee in North Idaho, has had sort of a rebirth in recent years. He hung up his zebra stripes back in the early 1990s because the two knee braces he wore to keep a pair of balky knees from slipping any more out of joint than they already did just weren’t doing the job anymore. He couldn’t take enough pain reliever to make running up and down the court worth the while.

Malcolm and his officiating buddy, Dave Corbeill, who also put away his whistle, wanted to stay involved somehow with prep basketball. So they split the hat as District I commissioner – the assignment of making sure every basketball game from eighth grade through varsity in the greater Panhandle had a pair of striped shirts to call their games.

About five years into the gig, Malcolm, who continued to tape up his knees and pound down enough ibuprofen to referee NCAA Division I football games (Big West Conference/Big Sky Conference on Saturdays), came upon one of those herbal products that restored the juices around his knee joints.

As fast as you could say, “Is that a full or 30-second timeout coach?” Malcolm decided to make a comeback on the basketball court.

“So I started as an apprentice. I thought it was the only fair way to work my way back up,” Malcolm said.

Less than two years later, Malcolm was back calling some of the big games in the region – just as he had since moving to Coeur d’Alene from Moscow in 1978.

Malcolm’s ties to the region go back to birth. He’s a Wallace native and would have graduated from high school there except his family moved to Cottonwood after his sophomore year.

He was among the first graduating class of Prairie High in 1962.

He hasn’t done as many prep state tourneys as some of his peers. Not that he wasn’t good enough. He’s consistently been in the top 10 among his peers over the years.

Malcolm has nothing but respect from his peers.

“I’ve learned so much from him – probably more from him than anybody,” said longtime official John Posnick. “He has great rules knowledge and common sense. A lot of people have one and not the other. He’s got it all.”

Malcolm hopes to earn another state tourney assignment before he retires. He has enough fond memories to fill a scrapbook or two.

Some of the most enjoyable games he’s officiated were boys games with Corbeill involving Wallace, his native town, and Kellogg, Corbeill’s native town.

“All the Wallace fans would be screaming at me and all the Kellogg fans would be screaming at Dave,” Malcolm said, flashing his familiar toothy smile.

Corbeill said some of the qualities he respects about Malcolm are his professionalism and preparedness.

“He always carried an extra uniform with him,” said Corbeill, who more than once had to borrow a pair of slacks or shoes (“I showed up once to do a game with him and had just one shoe.”).

Malcolm works by a simple philosophy.

“I’m not there for you, me, any fan or a coach. I know it sounds corny, but I’m there for the kids,” he said.

That’s the way it should be.