Wichita State’s head of news, media relations learned many life lessons on the court as a referee
As a basketball referee, Joe Kleinsasser spent 40 years watching human character up close – the good, the bad and the ugly.
But in watching more than 2,000 high school and college games, he learned about character.
Hundreds of Wichita-area business and community leaders heard him speak Monday at the Downtown Rotary meeting.
Game fans taunted and denounced him for four decades.
“Hey, ref, I found your cellphone,” one yelled at him. “It must be yours, because there are 13 missed calls.”
“There’s no way you can ever see everything,” Kleinsasser said.
“I officiated more than 2,000 games during 40 years, and on a good night, an official misses two or three calls either by omission or commission,” he said. “Based on that criteria, you could safely say I missed more than 5,000 calls in my officiating career. That’s more than a little humbling.”
But “in my 40 years of officiating, I never missed a shot, missed a free throw or had a turnover.”
“So much of what happens between coaches, players, officials and fans reflects society, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse,” Kleinsasser said. “And I hope you’ll see that much of our individual success or failure is determined by how we interact with others.”
Kleinsasser, 62, has served for 29 years as Wichita State University’s director of news and media relations. But his side job working Wichita City League and Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League games (and many college games) taught him more.
He learned by watching some people lose but act with honor.
“In a City League game years ago, I called an intentional foul on a player,” Kleinsasser said. “As I turned around to report the foul, the coach was standing and yelling at his player to apologize to the opponent he knocked down.
“Then he took the player out of the game.
“It was a great teaching moment by a coach whose team was 15 to 20 points behind in the fourth quarter.”
One referee’s pet peeve, he said: hearing sportscasters and fans say that officials should let players determine the outcome of a game.
“I remember making a foul call at the buzzer in the finals of a substate girls’ game one year. There was no doubt in my mind the girl shooting the ball was fouled as the buzzer sounded. So with no time on the clock in a tie game, the girl made a free throw to end the game.
“One option would have been to swallow my whistle and let the players determine the outcome in overtime. But how is that fair to the girl who was fouled before the buzzer?”
Competition brings out the worst and the best of us, he said. For the Rotarians, he recited taunts shouted at him.
“Hey, ref, what are you – blind?” “Hey, ref, don’t quit your day job!” “You need new glasses!” “Hey, ref, clean your glasses.” “I’ve seen better calls on the radio.” “I’ve seen better eyes on a potato!” “I’m blind! I’m deaf! I want to be a ref!”
But sometimes we learn from critiques.
Twenty years ago, he said, local city leagues asked former officials to evaluate game officials.
Kleinsasser got what he called a “brutal” review. “He said I was watching the ball too much when I should have been looking in my own area.
“I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. A part of me felt like ‘If it’s as bad as that evaluation says, they can find someone else to work the games.’ ”
But then he checked his own work.
“I caught myself following the ball too much when it was on the other side of the court.
“It showed me that others can sometimes see things that we don’t,” he said.
“We all have blind spots. The question is whether we’ll change our ways when we become aware of them – or stubbornly stick to our guns.”
Reach Roy Wenzl at 316-268-6219 or rwenzl@wichitaeagle.com. Follow him on Twitter: @roywenzl.
Life lessons from a longtime referee
From retired high school and college basketball referee Joe Kleinsasser’s speech to the Downtown Rotary on Monday.
▪ “At a state tournament game during the pre-game meeting, one of my partners said we want to do whatever we can to keep the best players on the floor. Translation? If we foul out the best players, the game isn’t as good. Well, I knew what he meant. We don’t want to foul out a good player on a borderline call. But I would rather not foul out any player on a borderline call. Why should a talented player be given more slack than anyone else?”
▪ “One time an official called the supervisor of officials for the Jayhawk Juco Conference, and the official complained about the coach who berated him mercilessly. The supervisor of officials asked, ‘Did you give him a technical foul?’ The official said, ‘No.’ The supervisor of officials hung up. The message was clear: If you don’t take care of business when a coach deserves a technical foul, don’t bother calling me to complain.”
▪ “A line I occasionally used when coaches kept arguing or wouldn’t let something go was ‘Do you want a technical?’ That usually got his or her attention and they stopped, except for one coach who kept right on complaining. After I gave the technical foul, the coach said, ‘What’s the technical for?’ ”
▪ “A college coach was on his hands and knees on the court like he was looking for a contact lens or something while the game was being played. The official stopped the game and said, ‘Coach, what are you doing out here?’ The coach said, ‘I’m trying to find the officials. I know they’re out here somewhere.’ ”
▪ “There’s a Bible verse that says a gentle answer turns away wrath. The advice one official gave me also is true, and that’s ‘Silence can’t be quoted.’ ”
This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Wichita State’s head of news, media relations learned many life lessons on the court as a referee."