MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Bill Titus was really no different than any other college kid, which is to say he was hoping to join a fraternity and wanted a car.
His parents’ advice: Go get a job to pay for it.
“We were your typical middle-class family in Morgantown,” Titus said. “My dad was an electrician with the railroad. My mom worked at Montgomery Ward.”
Titus’ job ended up becoming a basketball referee, first at the local junior-high level making $2.50 per game.
“I probably spent $1.25 of it on beer back then,” he said. “I was living the life.”
It became his career, one that made Titus one of the most hated people on the planet for 40 minutes each night officiating Division I women’s games across the country, not that he noticed all that much.
“They call it having rabbit ears,” he said. “If you’re paying attention to what fans are saying then you’re not giving the game your full attention. I learned to tone it all out. If you can’t, you’re not going to be around in this game very long.”
Titus was in the game for a long time, 42 years, in fact, at the Division I level. He worked both the 1992 and 2004 Final Four games of the NCAA women’s tournament.
If not for a hip replacement, Titus would likely still be in the game.
Doctors told him he could still officiate, but would probably need another operation in five years if he chose to do so.
He officially hung up his whistle at the conclusion of the 2017-18 season.
“I still have such a love for the game,” Titus said. “But it was time to move on and do something else.”
That something else is as a local landscaper, where he mows lawns. Among his customers, of all people, is West Virginia women’s coach Mike Carey, who has been known to speak his mind at an official a time, or two, during games.
“I go back with Bill probably 25 or 30 years. We’re neighbors,” Carey said. “The funny thing is, when he worked games here, the other officials would usually stay at his house the night before the game. I would always try to go over and catch them, but Bill always kept them out of sight.”
In nearly 50 years as a basketball official — counting his time as a high school referee — there were stories to be sure.
Tales of a referee
There was the night when Tennessee was playing at Connecticut and Titus called an offensive foul on Huskies’ star guard Diana Taurasi in front of a sold-out crowd.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma, “Came off the bench and yelled at me, “Bill, that was one hell of a call, but I’ve got to make this look good,’ ” Titus said. “Sure enough, as soon as he sat back down, 16,500 people started booing me.”
The game in 1984 where former West Virginia standout Georgeann Wells became the first woman to dunk in a game, Titus was one of the referees.
Another moment came at Arkansas, which was about to host Kansas State in an ESPN televised game.
“Right before the game, the lights went out in the arena,” Titus said.
There was still some back-up lighting available, but the main house lights couldn’t be turned back on until the second half.
“We had 16,000 people there and the game was on ESPN,” Titus said. “I said, ‘We’re playing.’ The schools didn’t like that decision too much.”
Turns out the shooting percentages by both teams were better in the first half with limited lighting than the second half with all the lights back on.
“I was actually commended by the NCAA for my decision,” Titus said.
In all of his years, Titus only had one fan ejected from a game.
“That was actually in a high school game here in Morgantown,” Titus said. “The fan knew me and was getting too personal. He was yelling about my family and those kinds of things. I told the athletic director, ‘He’s got to go.’ ”
Working his way up
Refereeing at the highest college level is very much about paying dues.
Titus began at the junior-high level and worked his way up to junior varsity and then the varsity boys’ level at high schools.
Along the way, his officiating got noticed to the point where he began working small-college level games.
“I actually worked the Division II men’s NCAA tournament before I ever got a call to work (the West Virginia) state high school tournament,” he said. “Funny how those things work out sometimes.”
Then-West Virginia women’s coach Kittie Blakemore asked Titus if he would be interested in Division I women’s officiating.
“She said it started out at $38 a game, but it was going up to $65 really soon,” Titus said. “That’s really how it all sort of began for me.”
All the while, Titus held his own full-time job. He was a supervisor at Consol Energy for 19 years and worked another 11 years at Mylan Pharmaceuticals.
“And then you throw in four and five months of traveling to do five or six games a week during the winter,” Titus said. “The travel part I won’t miss. Only getting to see my family for one night each week I won’t miss very much.”
Oh, how the game has changed
At the height of his officiating career, Titus was working women’s games in the ACC, Big East, Big 12, SEC, Big Ten, Atlantic 10 and the Ivy League.
He was a sort of witness to the women’s game growth in athleticism and popularity.
“It’s amazing how much women players have grown athletically in such a short time,” he said. “It’s night and day from now to where the game first started.”
How was he viewed by college coaches?
“Bill was a highly respected official,” Carey said. “He was always fair. You could talk to Bill, which is an important part of refereeing. A lot of the younger guys in the business these days, they don’t want to talk to anyone.”
Titus said he made it a point to talk with coaches during games.
“What fans don’t understand is if I miss a call, I probably know it before they do,” he said. “If I make a wrong call, I want to know about it. That’s why I never had a problem with coaches giving me beef.
“What I did have a problem with was coaches jumping up and down and throwing their hands up in the air and trying to make it a show while talking to me. I would tell coaches all the time, ‘Put your hands down and I’ll come over and talk to you.’ ”
As the game became quicker and more intense, the way it was officiated also changed.
“Replay is hurting the game,” Titus said. “There are parts of it that are good, like in determining who touched the ball last before going out of bounds. People think the block/charge call is the hardest to make, but it’s not. Trying to figure out who touched the ball last is more difficult, because it happens so fast. But, for the most part, they have replay for too many things and it’s not good for the game.”
Titus had this confession on why replay reviews take up so much time:
“I probably shouldn’t say this, but most of the time when reviews take forever, it’s not because they’re viewing the play over and over, it’s because they don’t know how to operate the replay equipment.
“No one ever really taught us how to work it and the monitor has all of these buttons that all have different angles and such. Sometimes what you’ll see is the older officials make way for the younger guy to come over. Well, that’s because the younger guy is better equipped to understand how it all works.”
What started out as beer money turned out to be a lifestyle that’s in the Titus’ family genetics.
Titus’ son Chad, a University High graduate, is currently working his way up the Division I women’s ladder as a referee.
“I have such a deep passion for the game,” Titus said. “It was just the right time for me to step away, but I’ll always love it. Where else can you piss off 30,000 people with one blow of the whistle?”
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