Lee and Terri have been married for 40 years and basketball has been a huge part of the Barlow family tradition.
Barlow will work his final high school game at Oakwood on Friday night with his son, Chad, also on the crew. Barlow also officiates youth leagues around the Dayton area. He estimates he’s worked about 500 basketball games a year for the last 35 years, plus a full schedule of high school football and baseball.
Earlier this week he talked about a career that has spanned thousands of games and hundreds of miles up and down basketball courts around the Miami Valley.
Experience aside, what makes somebody a good referee?
“I think a good referee is someone who is able to listen to the players and coaches if they have a complaint about a call instead of getting defensive about it. I’ve never been one to give out a lot of technical fouls because I like to kill them with kindness. I think it’s important to talk to a coach who has a complaint and tell them what I saw on a particular play.”
So what you’re telling me is that what my dad always said is really a myth? The referee is not always right?
“If a referee tells you he gets every call right during a game, that is a fallacy. Nobody is perfect, I’ll be the first to admit that. There are so many different angles to the game you just have to do the best you can. If a coach says that’s not the way I saw it, just explain to them that I might have missed it but I’ll get the next one right and go from there.”
You’ve worked games involving some of the all-time great players around the area. Dwight Anderson, the Paxson brothers (Jim and John) and Ron Harper to name a few.
“I have seen some fantastic players that have gone on to college and to the pros. It’s nice to know that I knew them on their way up, and maybe helped them out by giving them a good game with the whistle.”
After four decades of blowing the whistle, can you go to a game and just be a spectator?
“I cannot just sit there and watch a game. I root the players on because I’ve watched them grow up, but when I go, I watch the referees more than the players. I hear fans yelling and screaming and I will agree or disagree with an official, but I try to be open minded and see what they see.”
There is a serious shortage of referees these days. What kept you coming back for all these years? It certainly wasn’t the money.
“You make a couple of dollars, but you have to love the game to stay in it as long as some of us have. Sometimes we work four or five games on a Saturday and then come right back and do it again the next day. There’s been many times that I’ve worked 10 or 12 nights in a row because there were games that needed to be filled and I just enjoyed being out there.”
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