It may be a long way from the Western Athletic Conference to anything associated with Dr. James Naismith, but Colorado’s Randy McCall has negotiated it.
On Saturday, McCall was presented with the 2014 Naismith Men’s College Official of the Year at the NCAA Regional Officiating Clinic in Phoenix.
“Itap obviously a great honor and very humbling,” said McCall, a college basketball official who will turn 54 next month.
Said WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd in a statement: “Randy is the epitome of first class. He is the perfect example of a person working up the ranks to become the very best at what he does. His work on and off the court is exemplary.”
Itap an award presented annually to the men’s official whose effort has made contributions of outstanding significance and created a positive impact in college basketball. The fine print of the award states that it is presented to individuals “who display character, integrity and dignity, and have contributed mightily to the growth, success and viability of college basketball.” The selectee must have been involved with the sport as a game official for a minimum of 20 years, worked the NCAA Tournament as a game official and worked conference tournaments as a game official.
McCall said “a friend told me that only two guys out west have won this, I’m the second and it means a lot to me.”
McCall began his officiating career 35 years ago while still attending the University of Northern Colorado. He later got into the Colorado Athletic and Rocky Mountain Athletic conferences eight years later. In 1992, he went on to the WAC, Big West, Mountain West, Missouri Valley, Pac-12 and the Big 12. His first D-I NCAA Tournament? It happened in 2001.
Ten years ago, McCall officiated his first NCAA Regional and has worked an NCAA Regional every year since. He has worked four Final Fours.
“I’ve been fortunate and blessed a lot and this is just another one,” McCall said.
As the Cherry Creek athletic director from 1997-2011 – after teaching and coaching for 12 years – McCall oversaw Colorado’s top athletic machine on the prep level. While AD, the school’s teams won 67 state titles.
However, he was frequently questioned by parents who wondered why the district would allow one of its ADs to head off to officiate and not watch his school’s teams perform.
McCall handled it with class.
“I just made sure we had quality people in place to run things,” McCall said. “Everybody had ideas on it, what the AD should be … But I thought we did a wonderful job of taking care of kids.”
Now, he takes care of older athletes and has been recognized for it.
“Itap hard to put your mind around (this award), because as a referee you try to go as unnoticed as possible,” he said. “Itap hard to fathom right now. But I’m thankful.”
