Back at it today, and, unfortunately, starting off with some sad news to report.
Long-time Kitchener-Waterloo area basketball official Bill Moffett passed away over the weekend, following a courageous battle with cancer. He was 59 years old.
If you've played high school basketball in Waterloo Region at some point since the 1970s, there's a good chance that "Billy Mo" refereed one of your games at some point --- along with his "real jobs", he was a referee for 37 years.
SJAM coach Steve Peng noted on Twitter yesterday that Bill's career as a referee stretched to the point where he was refereeing generations of local talent:
@CWOSSABball Billy reffed me in the early 80's. He said recently he was a couple years away from reffing FOUR generations of athletes. Wow.
— Steve Peng (@stevepeng66) October 19, 2015
It goes without saying that Bill will be sorely missed in our gyms.
I also wanted to share a neat story that was posted by one of Bill's referee colleagues, Jay Kaufman, as an online condolence:
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I have many stories about Bill AKA 'Billy Mo' to his referee
pals. I've known Bill for as long as I can remember from his reffing with
my dad. When my dad passed away suddenly in 1995, Bill was part of a core
gang of KWOABO who helped out the family in any way they could. I'll
never forget him for that. He was a family friend.
Regardless, the story I remember most is refereeing a WOSSA
final with him up-country. I absolutely loved our trips up-country.
BIll usually drove because I was without a car at the time and I've never
laughed so hard in my entire life. Bill loved to make people laugh and
had a fantastic sense of humour. Anyway, on this one particular occassion
I drove myself in my Mom's van - when the transmission decided to crap out on
me on my way to this very important WOSSA game. With barely enough juice
left in my ancient cell phone, I somehow managed to find the number to the
school and called the school. Lucklily they picked up! I relayed to
the secretary that I was to referee this game and that I was stranded and to
contact Bill about my situation. She put me on hold and Bill came back on
the line asking me where I was stranded.
Twenty minutes later, Billy Mo picked me up on the side of
the road and drove me to the game.
Before doing so, he made both coaches
aware that my car had broken down and the game would go on, but it might tip
off a tad late because he had to get his partner in crime! We got there
about fifteen minutes after the game was supposed to tip off, but the game went
on. He then drove me back to my van on the way home, waited with me for
the tow truck to take it to a shop, followed the tow truck to the shop and made
sure everything was cool before driving me home - all whilst cracking jokes the
whole way!
That's the kind of man Bill was. I'll miss him a great
deal.
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As an FYI for those inquiring, visitation and funeral details have been announced. Visitation will be tomorrow (Wednesday, October 21st) at the Henry Walser Funeral Home (507 Frederick St., Kitchener, ON), from 3-5pm and 7-9pm.
Bill's funeral will be on Thursday, October 22nd, at 11am, and will be held at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Downtown Kitchener (137 Queen St. S.).
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