For Steve Ganson ’73, the roundabout path to his passion started with a class he didn’t want to take.
“When I started at Wabash in 1969, there was still a physical education requirement, and I did not want to take it,” says Ganson, who retired earlier this year after officiating four sports in the Tucson, AZ, area for 40 years. “The only way around it was to be a manager, so I signed up for basketball even though I didn’t know a lot about the game.”
He started under Coach Rusty Nichols ’63, doing the things managers usually do. Halfway through that 1969-70 campaign, he was promoted when the two senior managers quit. For the next three seasons he went to practices, kept statistics at games and hosted officials.
Snowy Simpson took over as coach during Ganson’s senior year, and during a Saturday morning practice he instructed Ganson to go downstairs and get a striped shirt and a whistle. He was going to referee the scrimmage.
“What are you talking about?” Ganson asked. “I’ve never done that before.”
“Well, in an hour you are never going to be able to make that statement again,” Simpson replied.
That first scrimmage must have been a player’s dream; Ganson claims to have only called three-second violations. No fouls. No traveling. Nothing else.
Three days later another scrimmage was scheduled.
“Go get your whistle,” Simpson said.
“And I was hooked,” Ganson recalls.