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Starkins celebrates 30 years of refereeing

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Contributed by: Mark Kellam on 5/23/2008

John Starkins got his start refereeing basketball games at Mason Recreation Center in Chatsworth on a lark.

It was 1978 and he was living in Canoga Park. A championship game was about to start at Mason Recreation Center and the scheduled referees hadn't shown up.

A call was made to Starkins and he went. He refereed the game by himself because they couldn't get another referee on such short notice.
And, as they say, the rest is history.

Starkins recently celebrated 30 years refereeing youth and adult basketball games at Mason.

He said the 30-year mark didn't come with a big celebration. "It just sort of crept up," he said.

That's compared to his 25-year refereeing milestone when an old basketball was brought out and everyone signed it.

The adult league has changed a lot since the late 1970s and early 1980s, Starkins said.

Back then, the league was full of ex-players from UCLA, CSUN and UC, Santa Barbara. They were more interested in the team elements of the game.

Today, players shoot the ball more quickly, Starkins said. And today's players tend to be quicker and bigger than the players 25 to 30 years ago.

Starkins, himself, had a successful high school basketball career, attending L.A. Marshall High School, where he had a 36.9 game-point average. He still ranks 18th in the state for high school game-point averages.

He went to Brigham Young University on a basketball scholarship, but didn't pursue a professional career.

"I was smart enough to know my limitations," Starkins said.

He earned a bachelor's degree and later a master's degree, both in physical education, and he's been teaching physical education at Valley View Middle School in Simi Valley for 33 years.

As a referee, Starkins is known for being outspoken on the court, often throwing out compliments to players at time-outs and even during games.

If someone confronts him about a call, he's more inclined to crack a joke than slap the player or coach with a technical foul.

"It defuses the situation," Starkins said.

Starkins said he likes the Mason league because everyone has fun, including humorous awards that are handed out to players.

Honors such as the H&R Block Shot, AT&T Long Distance Shot and the StarKist Tuna Catch of the Day are just a few of the awards given to players.

One of Starkins' biggest - and funniest - supporters is Dr. Paul Hannig, whose sons have played in the adult league at Mason for several years and Hannig attends most of the games.

"He's like Henny Youngman," Starkins said. "Every time I come in, he's got some great one-liners for me."

At a game that marked Starkins' 30th anniversary refereeing at Mason, Hannig gave him a CD. On it was a rap song Hannig had written about Starkins.

The lyrics at beginning of the song are:
"There is a referee who laughs real loud.
You can hear his glee ripped through the crowd.
Tell him a joke and he's off and runnin'
But if you foul, he'll nail you travelin' and gunnin.'"

With so much humor and good nature at Mason, Starkins said refereeing there is one of the best things he's done in his life.

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