TunneySide of Sports

On the TunneySide of Sports September 28, 2020 #815 Up next… a Tribute to NASO!

After further review… The National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) is celebrating its 40^th year as a professional officials organization. The profession of sports officiating is much older than forty years, but it took an enterprising and tireless effort by its founder, Barry Mano, to create an association not only to bring all sports officials as one but also to recognize and promote the art and science of sports officiating as a profession.

If you will pardon this personal history, I recall my dad, Jim Sr., coaching his high school football T*E*A*M one afternoon with other coaches being the on-field officials; then the following afternoon dad gong to their school to officiate their games. All without pay, of course. I picked up on that as an Occidental College senior and officiated our intermural games – again for free!

Following my college graduation, I joined the Southern California Football then Basketball Officials Associations in order to qualify to officiate local high school games. They were paying $12.50 per game and I was able to work three games each week thereby earning $37.50 to supplement my teaching salary. Thus, began my forty-year career in sports officiating.

When Barry Mano came calling in the late 1970s waving the NASO banner recruiting me to join and inviting me to be the keynote speaker at NASO’s first convention in 1981 to be held in San Francisco, I eagerly accepted. The attendance was small, about 280 more or less, and the budget smaller. The association has grown today to some 26,000 members and the conventions now morphed into NASO Summits with its 40^th being held virtually for the first time.

Mano with a journalistic background jumped on sports writing noting that sports officials were getting bad press. “Nobody writes about an official who makes a good call,” said Mano, an official himself who comes from an officiating family. Further, Mano sought to make officiating a profession, not a hobby.

Today NASO leads the industry in providing premier officiating educational benefits by creating alliances and serving as a voice for officials nationally. It has grown to be the foremost advocate for officials and officiating. When it began, it was primarily for baseball, basketball, and football officials, but Mano has seen to it that all sports officials are recognized. Further, he has reached out to sports companies who have stepped up to sponsor NASO summits.

While the major credit is due Mano, he will tell you that much credit goes to those past and present sports officials who have become members and serve in the NASO leadership.

Will you look at sports officiating as a profession?

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To contact Jim, go to www.jimtunney.com or email jim@jimtunney.com.

Jim’s books take issues from the sports world and transform them into positive messages.    Please visit the above website for product information. Stay Safe! Thank You!

On the TunneySide of Sports September 21, 2020 #814 Up next… Where Do We Go From Here?

After further review… There are so many facets and personal opinions to the idea I am proposing herein that the printed word may not be understood by all. As a preamble, let me say that I have been involved in sports all my life – multiple decades! I was raised in a family with a father who grew up without a father. Dad found sports with a passion that provided our family with an adequate living.

Jim Sr. was a superb and talented athlete throughout his high school, college, and professional days. Sports served him well. After his daily task of selling newspapers as a youth on the streets of downtown Los Angeles which provided his family with some support, dad found sports to be a fun and relaxing activity. I grew up in that atmosphere of hard work – never expecting anything to be given to me that I didn’t earn.

Many of today’s athletes – more than you might guess – grew up in that kind of family as well. They worked hard to become the best in their sport in order to play at the professional level. The salaries and benefits accorded athletes today were not in existence when they first dreamed of playing at the professional level.

The money and benefits in today’s professional-level are what many fans consider outrageous– especially during this 2020 pandemic. Homes are being foreclosed, jobs have been lost, businesses have been abandoned and far too many are homeless. What bothers many fans about these wealthy athletes is they are promoting causes and are not focusing on what the fans are paying to see. Fans want fair and proper social justice as well as improvements.

Fans are abandoning watching games because they are coming from their jobs or lack thereof to enjoy the athletic talents of these players. They don’t watch sports to hear a diatribe on social issues. With fans walking away sponsors and television networks will begin to as well.

So, how about this: NFL, NBA, and MLB players are making a good living. If their leadership would step up and create a foundation or trust to which these wealthy players would contribute in order to create some meaningful dialogue among all races to improve relations, I believe they would take a step towards a positive solution.

Will you log-in your thoughts about how to improve racial relations?

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To contact Jim, go to www.jimtunney.com or email jim@jimtunney.com.