Crawford was Delco’s 2015 Sports Figure of the Year
NBA ref and Havertown native Joe Crawford is Delaware County Sports Figure of the Year
NEWTOWN SQUARE >> Another NBA game was about to begin, one of the 39 years’ worth that he would come to officiate, and Joe Crawford was at the edge of the court in Los Angeles, shedding his pregame warmup jacket.
Turning to the Lakers fan to his left, Crawford casually said, “Hi, Jack.” Replied Jack Nicholson: “Hi, Joe.”
“So that night, I am back at the hotel, and I am going nuts,” Crawford was saying, years later. “I’m thinking, ‘Jack Nicholson knows my name.’ I was a fan of his going back to Easy Rider. And I couldn’t believe it.
“Jack … Nicholson … knows … my … name.”
And why not? From his character silhouette to his trademark professional passion to his reputation of being as splendid a major-league-sports official as there ever has been, no one involved in basketball does not know his name. Maybe they call him Joey, a nickname lobbed on him decades ago by former NBA ref Joe Gushue to differentiate the two noted refs from greater Philadelphia. Maybe they call him Jody, from the stands, in any corner of the NBA at any time, a signal that it is a friend from his native Havertown, where that was his boyhood nickname.
But it’s Joe. Joe Crawford.
“Just Joe,” says his wife, Mary.
So Just Joe it is, but with one more qualifier: The 2015 Delaware County Sports Figure of the Year, as chosen by the
Daily Times sports department. Based on the end-of-the-year Sports Illustrated model, the honor has gone since 1996 to that individual, entity or concept that best brought positive attention to Delaware County in the previous 365 days … and, often times, for much longer than that.
Crawford, 64, and about to retire from active NBA officiating, enjoyed a signature career moment in 2015, officiating his 50th NBA Finals game, Game 4 of the Cavaliers-Warriors series. Only Philadelphia-born officiating legend Mendy Rudolph was known to have worked more, but that was in another era, before a spot in the finals was awarded only after a season’s worth of scrutiny by judges literally critiquing every call in every game. At season’s end, 32 refs are chosen for the playoffs. Not unlike a tournament bracket, that number is reduced, on merit, through each round until there are 12 remaining for the finals, three for each of the four games. If a series goes longer, a referee may have a second chance.
Joe Crawford, who in 2014 received the Golden Whistle Award from the National Association of Sports Officials, the highest honor in his profession, has earned the right to have officiated 50, FiveOh, NBA Finals games.
“To reach the level Joe has, working 50 NBA Finals games, it is unheard of, unheard of,” said Duke Callahan, the NBA ref, a Drexel Hill resident. “I don’t know if anybody would ever break that again. I’d be surprised. And I think it’s unlikely that anyone will.”
That Callahan would be on the crew with Crawford that night in Cleveland, making it two of the three refs being graduates of Cardinal O’Hara High, was a coincidence. Or was it fate? For when Crawford had his first opportunity to referee any game for money, at St. Leonard’s Academy near the University of Penn at age 18, the assigner was Mary Callahan, Duke’s mother, since deceased.
“And she always took 10 percent of what we made, as the assigner,” Crawford laughs. “Every time I saw her after that, I’d say, ‘Hey, do you have that 10 percent? I can use the money.’ She was the greatest.”
Mary Callahan helped Joe Crawford get started, and Joe Crawford forever did his part to repay the professional favor, always, always helping young, hopeful officials, mostly in Delaware County.
“Oh, my gosh, are you kidding me? Yeah,” said NBA ref Eddie Malloy, the former star guard at O’Hara and Philadelphia Textile. “Myself, Mark Wunderlich, Duke Callahan, Mark Lindsay. And Steve Javie, who is not a Delco guy but a Montgomery County guy, is another ref that Joe has influenced. When I think about it, besides my father and Coach (Herb) Magee and Coach (Buddy) Gardler, who I played for, Joe is right up there with people who have influenced me. Joe is the best. And it makes me feel good for what he has meant to me over the years.”
In a profession where no call ever goes unquestioned, that’s one on which there is a consensus.
“Simply put, Joe is a giver,” said the Drexel Hill-born Lindsay. “Joe is generous with everyone he encounters. He is an incredible partner on the floor and his selflessness and willingness to share his vast array of experience and lessons he’s learned along the way is unparalleled. His tutelage is indelible and his impact will be long lasting.”
Crawford’s rise to prosports prominence may not have been pre-destined, but it was not without the influence of his
father, the legendary majorleague baseball umpire Shag Crawford. “When he’d take me to a basketball game,” Joe shrugs, “he wouldn’t talk about Wilt Chamberlain. He’d talk about Mendy Rudolph.”
Shag Crawford, who died in 2007 at age 90, umpired in the National League from 1956 through 1975. Joe’s brother, Jerry Crawford, was a major-league umpire from 1976 through 2010. But Joe more enjoyed basketball, which was outrageously popular throughout Delaware County during his youth. One summer, Crawford recalls, a priest at Sacred Heart in Manoa, began a basketball league that proved so alluring that had to be limited only to members of the parish. Yet Crawford was from the nearby St. Pius parish.
“So they said, ‘OK, we’ll let him ref,’” Crawford said. “I went down the street to Murphy’s and bought a whistle. I was 16. I didn’t know what I was doing. But I was blowing that whistle.”
With that, the game was on, and Crawford knew he wanted to be an NBA ref. So he worked everywhere. “Bar leagues, bus driver leagues, CYO,” he recalls. “I don’t think there is a gym in Delaware County that I haven’t worked in.” Eventually, he was hired to work in the Eastern League, a minor pro circuit, an earlier-form NBA D-League. In 1977, he enjoyed what he still considers one of his “proudest” officiating achievements, calling the Catholic League championship game, the Public League championship game and the City Championship game, all in the same year. “Archbishop Carroll and Father Judge, Overbrook and West Philly, West Philly and Judge,” Crawford rattles off. “It’s like it was yesterday.”
The game moves fast, all of it. But Crawford was always involved, not just at the pro level, but as a leader of the Comets, an AAU program for girls. Even as he was about to officiate in that 50th NBA Final, he remembers savoring his love for the sport. “I thought, ‘If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be reffing St. Pius and Sacred Heart,’” he said. “And you know what? I would have.”
This season, he has been recovering from knee surgery, but hopes to return to the NBA by March 1. If he qualifies, and he should, he will work again in the NBA Finals and then plan a transition into an executivelevel officiating position.
When he leaves the court for the final time, somehow the NBA will seem emptier.
“He’s smooth in his calls, and he’s always fun,” said Mike Conley, of the Memphis Grizzlies. “He doesn’t shy away from the attention. He does all of the antics with his calls. If it’s a regular foul, he’ll do something over the top to make it look and feel a little extra. He finds a way to make his mark.”
Crawford lives in Newtown Square with his wife. He has three married daughters, Amy Bauer, Megan Day and Erin Peterson, and nine grandchildren, with a 10th about ready to check into the game. He knows his career has had “some hiccups,” which included a suspension for once challenging Tim Duncan to a fight after the Spurs’ star was caught snickering at some calls from the bench.
“He’s a strong referee,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “Like all of us, you have good nights and you have bad nights. But like I tell my guys, ‘Be strong and wrong.’ If not, that’s when you get in trouble, all of us, in life, in general, I think. So you’ve got to shoot the ball. You have to make a call. You just have to follow your gut.
“He has a strong personality. Think about reffing an NBA Final. You better come with just a ‘presence.’ And he carries himself with a presence. It’s a hard environment to be a referee in any circumstance, let alone an NBA Final. And you’ve seen him deep into playoffs. You see how he just carries himself. And there is a level of respect that just kind of follows him. I think it starts with his presence.”
Presence, Joe Crawford has, enough of it, it has been said, that he is more recognizable than most players in the NBA.
“Sometimes, though, you get all puffed up with yourself,” Crawford said. “I remember the time I was in an airport. And I sense that this guy recognizes me. He is hovering around, not knowing what to say. And finally he walks up to me and points and me and says, ‘Mills Lane!’” Laughing out loud, Crawford continued. “I said, ‘Close. I’m a referee, but not the boxing ref. I am Joe Crawford. ‘That’s right,’ the guy says. ‘I knew I knew you.’”
They all do, the movie stars, the players, the coaches, the fans. They all know the 2015 Delco Sports Figure of the Year. They all know Joe. Just Joe.