Pickens keeps score |
| Posted by Administrator on Mar 11 2009 at 2:21 PM |
Photo by Kristen Brockman
Charles Pickens stands above the basketball court in the Health and Sports Center, where he has been keeping score at basketball games since 1967.
By Matt Lindsay
Antelope Staff
Over the course of his life there have been two things Charlie Pickens probably has spent more time on than anything else; teaching math at UNK and keeping the score book at the Loper men's basketball games. While he has been retired from the former for eight years now, he is still going strong with the latter.
The year was 1967 and Pickens was fresh out of graduate school and teaching at UNK, at the time Kearney State, when former men's basketball coach Wayne Samuelson approached him about keeping the score book.
"He told me the gentleman who had been doing it decided not to do it, and he asked if I'd be interested," Pickens said. "He knew I was a sports fan. So I said, 'Oh that sounds like fun.'"
Pickens' career as score book keeper has now spanned nearly 42 years, two gymnasiums and somewhere between 400-500 games. The number of games Pickens has scored might not be as high as it is today if it hadn't been for a green visor he starting using when he was fighting cataracts in his eyes.
He said when he got in the new arena, he discovered the lights there really bothered his cataracts. A contact from another part-time avocation came to the rescue.
"I deal black jack for Sherry Morrow and her casino business, and she said 'Charlie would you like a green visor?'" Morrow to the rescue, and a new tradition established: "Well she brought it, and it did help with the lights. And then after I got my cataracts taken care of, I really don't need it anymore, but it's sort of a tradition."
Nowadays the green visor has made him one of the more recognizable figures to not only fans, but also to officials and opposing coaches who are visiting the Health and Sports Center for the first time.
"What's fun about the green visor is that I will have both coaches and officials the first time they do a game say, 'Oh there he is, I've heard about you,'" Pickens said. "So the green visor went from being a necessity for about one or two years to becoming a tradition in my mind, nobody else cares, but I have fun with it."
In addition to the green visor, Pickens also wears a black and white striped referee's shirt, which unlike the visor, is now a requirement to wear when keeping the score book.
"I started that when we moved to Division II," Pickens said. "I think the reason why (I had to start wearing it) was because the rulebook says that the scorekeeper is required to wear a striped shirt."
Although over the years Pickens' attire has made him stand out more and more at the scorer's table, the significance of his job as scorekeeper has become of less importance.
"Nobody pays attention to the book anymore," Pickens said.
In the old days, he would have both the radio and newspaper guys looking over his shoulder waiting for him to tally up the final statistics.
"Now the game is over and there is nobody standing behind me, because as soon as it is over, all (Sports Information Director) Peter Yazvac has to do is hit the print button, and here it comes, and there isn't anybody around me," Pickens said.
As technology has become more advanced, and statistics are more readily available, the only time Pickens is really needed is when the officials need to look at the book in the event there is a discrepancy in the scoring or an illegal substitution. But even though the role of scorekeeper isn't as important as it used to be, Pickens doesn't see a reason to stop and hand the books over to the next guy.
"I can sit up with my golfing buddies and my coffee buddies, but I see them enough that I don't have to sit with them at basketball games," Pickens said. "So I'll probably keep doing it till they (the athletic department) tell me 'Charlie, I think it's time to quit,' and hopefully I'll be aware that it is time to quit."
It is probably a safe bet they will have to replace the green visor before they have to replace Charlie Pickens.
