Charley Eckman
Charles Markwood Eckman Jr. was an American basketball head coach and professional basketball referee for the National Basketball Association. He is the only person to have ever officiated and coached in an NBA All-Star Game. Eckman also officiated college basketball for many years, including the 1961 NCAA Division I men's championship game, and six straight Atlantic Coast Conference championship games. Eckman was also a sports broadcaster, respected horse racing handicapper and professional baseball scout.
Early life
Eckman was born on September 10, 1921, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Charles Markwood Eckman Sr. and Marie Margaret Eckman. Eckman's father fought during World War I and was gassed during the Meuse–Argonne offensive in France. His father survived the war, but died from his wounds when Eckman was 12 years old. After that, Eckman and his mother struggled to make ends meet during the Depression. He went to work as a helper on a delivery truck for the Cambria's Bugle Coat and Apron Company that same year his father died. He was a bat boy for the Baltimore Black Sox and/or the Albany Senators when visiting Baltimore, making 25-cents a game.He graduated from Baltimore City College high school in 1939, where he was classmates with future Maryland governors Marvin Mandell and William Donald Schaefer, who both said Eckman retained the same colorful personality throughout his life. He was an All-Maryland second baseman on the City College baseball team. In 1941, he was selected to the Maryland Amateur Baseball Association All-Star Team.
Eckman was a three-sport star as a youngster, excelling in baseball, basketball and track. He also played soccer in his youth. Among the odd jobs Eckman did to raise extra money, at 16 years old he officiated amateur basketball games five or six nights a week for 50 cents a game. He was drafted by the Washington Senators after graduating from Baltimore City College and played in their farm system, but never made it to playing Major League Baseball. In 1940, he played Class D minor league baseball for the Mooresville Moores, in Mooresville, North Carolina, part of the North Carolina State League. One of his teammates was future major league Hall of Fame pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm. He was later traded that same year to the Newton-Conover Twins, after which his professional baseball playing career soon ended.
Eckman met his wife Wilma Howard in Mooresville, and they married after a very brief courtship of less than one week.
Officiating career
Eckman's first experience as a referee came at 16-years old. He recognized he was not going to make it as a professional baseball or basketball player, but knew he could reach the top as a referee. He studied local Baltimore referees Jim Boyer and Johnny Neun who had played and managed in Major League Baseball, and approached Boyer for guidance. Boyer encouraged Eckman to pursue becoming a referee; and Neun helped him get work as a referee. As his family needed the money, he refereed as many games as possible; sometimes three on Sundays in different locations.Eckman continued officiating in Baltimore until 1941, reaching the local pinnacle of the Baltimore Basketball League, where he could make $7.50 per game. His officiating career was interrupted in 1942 when he was drafted into the United States Army. He was later transferred to the Army Air Corps, and was ultimately stationed in Yuma, Arizona, serving as a physical training instructor, and refereeing basketball games in his spare time.
Upon his discharge in 1945, Eckman moved his wife and newborn son to Arizona, where he had been stationed. He continued to officiate basketball games, this time with the American Basketball League West Coast, while working for the Phoenix office of the War Assets Administration. In 1946–47, he teamed with Frank Lubin to officiate games for such teams as the Oakland Bittners and the Hollywood Shamrocks of the American Basketball League, and Amateur Athletic Union teams like the San Diego Dons. He also officiated Southwestern Conference college games in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Eckman returned to Baltimore with his family in 1947, and began working full time for Westinghouse. He continued his work as a referee. He was hired by Basketball Association of America Chief Referee Pat Kennedy, originally just working on Saturdays; but was hired full time by league commission Maurice Podoloff in 1948 during a Westinghous strike. The BAA merged with the National Basketball League in the summer of 1949 and became the National Basketball Association. The original NBA referees were Eckman, Kennedy, Arnold Heft, Louie Eisenstein, Sid Borgia, Joe Serafin and Phil Fox. He was especially fond of officiating games in Sheboygan Wisconsin that season, despite being trapped there by snow and ice. Among other referees, Eckman joined Kennedy, Borgia, Max Tabacchi and future Hall of Fame umpire Jocko Conlin in the 1950 NBA season, making $50/game for working 23 games per month.
Eckman officiated at the first NBA All-Star Game in 1951, and later was the head coach of the Western Conference All-Star teams in 1955, and 1956, becoming the only person to have officiated and coached in an NBA All-Star Game. After a playoff game in March 1951 between the New York Knicks and Syracuse Nationals in Syracuse, Eckman and fellow referee Julie Myers had to ask for police protection after they were embroiled in volatile arguments with both coaches and the Nationals' owner.
In 1952, he was part of an experiment, along with Myers, to officiate the game seated in tennis judges' chairs, rather than on the court with the players. Eckman helped train future Naismith Hall of Fame official Mendy Rudolph as an NBA referee. Eckman was ranked as one of the top officials in the NBA during his time as a referee, until 1954, when Pistons owner Fred Zollner signed the 32-year-old Eckman to a three-year coaching contract.
After his NBA coaching career ended in December 1957, Eckman eventually returned to officiate college basketball in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Southern Conference, the Eastern Conference and the Ivy League. He worked across conferences, a nomad referee, and most frequently in the American South where he was paid more. Eckman found Greenville, South Carolina the most hospitable city in which to referee of anywhere he had been. Once during a game involving Dean Smith's North Carolina Tar Heels when Smith was using his delaying four-corners offense, Eckman got a folding chair and sat on it while the North Carolina Players dribbled away. He was considered one of the best basketball referees in the United States, and officiated six consecutive ACC tournament championship games from 1958 to 1963. He officiated the 1961 NCAA championship game between the University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University.
He returned to refereeing in the NBA in 1964, replacing Sid Borgia who was made supervisor of referees. Earlier that year, Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated had called Eckman, while still a college referee, "unquestionably the most colorful official in the game". He joined a staff of officials that included Naismith Hall of Fame referees Mendy Rudolph and Earl Strom, Norm Drucker, Joe Gushue, Don Murphy, Richie Powers, Paul Ruddy and John Vanek. During the 1964 NBA season, when play on the court was particularly physical and players were being injured, some claimed that the referees were failing to call fouls when needed. Eckman was quoted as lamenting at the time "it's just too much judgment".
Not long after, Eckman retired from the NBA, and gave his broader perspective on the purported rough play. He believed the games were being called tightly enough, but that the NBA did not have enough officials, and that the league was relying too much on inexperienced officials who did not yet know how to control a game. Fans, coaches and players were so abusive towards referees, that this also discouraged people from wanting to become NBA referees. In addition to its being a thankless job, he observed "There's no security, no pension. The only security I ever had was getting out of town safely and hoping the plane stayed up".
Eckman continued refereeing college basketball until March 1967. He was only 45-years old at the time. He believed that fan behavior was getting worse at college games, with conduct like throwing heated pennies or rubber balls at opposing players or occasionally referees. In 1967, after 29 years and over 3,500 collegiate and professional basketball games, Eckman, announced his retirement from officiating, after experiencing leg problems. Eckman is the only person to have ever officiated the NIT, NCAA and NBA Finals games.
Refereeing style
Eckman said "I'm a players' referee.... I try to satisfy the players". He did not try to intimidate players or make himself out to be a tough guy, but believed firmness and courtesy worked best. Eckman was good natured and took the view a basketball game was meant to be pleasurable. He would try to settle players down, even making jokes like "you don't shoot well enough to argue with me", or advise them on how to avoid unnecessary fouls, such as "watch the elbow...ease up...lemme see some daylight".Eckman considered himself a nonconformist as a referee, making independence and integrity central to his role as a referee. He was helpful to young referees who were learning their trade, and was aware of when to restrain them in games. He understood how quickly the attitudes of players, coaches and fans could change from play to play, based on the calls he made and their biases in whether the calls favored their side. Eckman ignored flattery, and the bitterness from fans; instead focusing on treating players fairly and respectfully. Former ACC player, assistant coach and longtime television college basketball analyst Billy Packer said of Eckman, "He's the only official that any player–whether he's Art Heyman or a substitute–can figure will give him an even break every time".
He would listen to a coach's dissatisfaction in the heat of a game, but then let it pass. Wake Forest coach Bones McKinney said Eckman was unique in his refereeing style, and always kept the game moving forward in the right direction; and that Eckman did not waste time in a game or antagonize the players. Eckman believed his main role was to protect the shooter; yet he also gave considerable thought on how blocking and charging fouls were called, understanding that the rules at the time in college basketball generally favored the defense. He believed he had to be quick and decisive in making a call, trusting in his experience rather than taking a more studied intellectual approach to the game. He also recognized that a referee had to use their judgment in how the rules were applied; observing that on any one play he could identify six fouls among all the holding and pushing players did in going for a rebound.
Eckman said "Officiating in 90 per cent guts and 2 per cent rule book. Look, ball goes out of bounds, you call blue or red and you can only be right or wrong. You make that decision, you bop it out loud so every yo-yo in the place can hear it, and if you do blow one, you grab the ball and you run down the court smiling bop-de-bop-bop". He is also quoted as saying that officiating is "90 per cent guts and judgment and 10 per cent rule book", while the fans view was that the referee should favor their team in making calls.