Omaha native John Higgins prefers that you don’t make a big deal about this week’s announcement on his future. That’s how basketball referees operate. But when a ref has worked nine Final Fours and calls it quits, it becomes a big deal. Greg Echlin has the story for Omaha Public Radio…
<<{Nat. sound of 2023 Final Four}>>
When Omaha’s John Higgins and Gretna resident Kipp Kissinger worked together in the Final Four’s first semifinal last April in Houston, they paired up for a rarity. And little did they know…for the last time with each other…
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Higgins and Kissinger became the first referees from the same area since 2004 to work what turned out to be the most dramatic contest at the Final Four. The game between San Diego State and Florida Atlantic came down to the final seconds…
<<{CBS-TV play-by-play: It’s Butler with two seconds. He’s got to put it up (horn). He wins it with a jumper!!! (crowd roar)}>>:08
While Jim Nantz…in his last Final Four for CBS… nailed it with his call, Higgins says the refs achieved their ultimate goal: Staying out of the limelight…
<<{John Higgins: Guy takes a shot. Goes to the basket. One-point game. Goes in and nobody’s talking about us.}>>:10
But Kissinger, who worked his second Final Four, says even the refs recognize when history is being written…
<<{Kipp Kissinger: All of us refereeing at that high level, because we’ve had a historical background of playing sports, we all knew right then that it was something special.}>>:09
Topping it off was finding out prior to the game that he and Higgins…whom Kissinger considers as one of his mentors…were assigned by the coordinators to work the same game...
<<{Kipp Kissinger: Until they actually read the assignments at our meeting that morning, we had no idea. So it was incredible, feeling that we were going to take the court that night together.}>>:10
But don’t get the impression that it was their first time on the floor together…
<<{Kipp Kissinger: We’ve worked a hundred times together probably over the years. We’re kind of like brothers in that regard. We know how each other calls the games. We know what to expect. Because of that, we had an immediate comfort level.}>>:13
Neither Kissinger nor Higgins knew at the time that it would their last game together. The supervisor for a group of conferences on the West Coast, including the Pac-12, retired. Higgins was named this week to replace him, meaning he’ll no longer be on the floor…
<<{John Higgins: It’ll be strange. It’ll be hard. I think it’ll be tougher than just going out there to referee because, when you go out and referee, you do your job, you’re done and you don’t have coaches calling you.}>>:12
Higgins will travel less. Which is more comforting because that’s the difficult part about officiating. It’s not so much about being cussed out by fans who disagreed with his calls. It was more
about balancing his life on the road. While also running a roofing business and, most important, raising a family…
<<{Higgins: I have a good wife (pauses and sniffs)…she took care of the kids.}>>:08
As one who traveled to basketball arenas all over the country, Higgins says nothing compares to being home…
<<{Higgins: I love Omaha. It’s a great town. It’s a great city to raise a family obviously. It’s just the Midwest.}>>:09
About that thick skin necessary for referees to ignore the names they’re called while on the floor? Higgins says that came while growing up in Omaha in a large family…
<<{Higgins: I think it’s part of growing up with a family of eight kids…A disciplined dad.}>>:13
There was no bigger test for a young John Higgins on developing a thick skin than interacting with a dad, Roger Higgins, who coached at St. Cecilia Cathedral High School before it closed, then at Bryan and Roncalli High Schools. John Higgins knew how his dad felt about referees…
<<{John Higgins: He hated ‘em.}>>:02
But John Higgins became one anyway and recalls a conversation they had while returning home one day from a game…
<<{John Higgins: On the ride, he would start critiquing me. I’m like, “Dad, you’ve got to be on my team.”}>>:04
Now Higgins finds himself mentoring others like Kipp Kissinger. You never know…Higgins might guide two other guys…who happen to live a few miles from each other… and maybe…like
Higgins and Kissinger…they’ll work a game together at the Final Four.
For Omaha Public Radio, I’m Greg Echlin.