The Dean (Not as in Smith) of ACC Scorekeepers
Official Ray Natili reported a wrong number to the scorer’s table during Wake Forest’s victory over UNC Greensboro Monday. It happens, but rarely without causing at least a yap or two from the wronged bench. Confusion reigned for a few seconds before the official closest to the table, Mike Eades, asked for clarification.
In pretty much every production, there’s a stage and a backstage. In college basketball the players, coaches and officials command the stage, but there’s also an extensive backstage populated by sportswriters, media relations personnel, conference officials, stat-keepers, and support staff. You can usually find us in the buffet line, when and where free food is provided. We get to know each other, and over the years we get to know each other well. And along the way we get to know the coaches and the referees who put on the show.
Gary Strickland, class of 1973 at Wake Forest, is in his 29th season as the Deacons’ scorekeeper. Everyone in the ACC knows him, whether they want to or not. He’ll make sure of it, and he’ll do so by giving you as much grief as he possibly can. He’s one of those people who if you ever took anything he said personally, you’d probably have to shoot him just as a matter of honor. My first impression was he was the biggest pain in the behind I had ever met. We became friends when I realized he could take it as well as he could dish it out. In fact, he revels in the give-and-take. I knew his father Hugh, the late, great Deacons fan who set what had to be some kind of record by attending 339 straight Wake Forest basketball games, and I know his sons, David, Michael and Scott. Gary coached my son, Nate, in baseball, with me helping out when I wasn’t getting tossed out of games.
By now, Gary is the Dean of ACC scorekeepers, though given his opinion of that state school somewhere in the area of the geographical center of the state that will go nameless, he probably wouldn’t appreciate that description. Hugh Strickland once told his son, that it’s wrong to hate anybody. “But if you absolutely have to hate anybody,’’ Hugh said, “hate North Carolina.’’ But Gary has been the official scorer of the ACC Tournament for going on 14 years, of which there are two. Gary does it every season. The other position is filled on a rotating basis.
So before the dispute could disrupt anymore of Wake Forest’s victory over UNCG, Eades turned and asked `Who was the foul on, Gary?’ Strickland replied, `No. 12.’ Eades nodded, said `Foul’s on No. 12 (Kyle Randall)’ and the ball was handed to C.J. Harris at the line to resume the game.
Strickland knows Eades obviously. More important in this instance, Eades knows Strickland.
He couldn’t help it if he tried.