Every week leading up to the reveal of the nominees for the Class of 2020 for the Ultimate Hoops Hall of Fame, we’ll feature a possible candidate for the upcoming induction class. None of these articles will focus on anyone who has already been nominated for the Hall of Fame but has yet to be inducted. If you want to learn more about those candidates, you can visit the Hall of Fame section of our blog.

Today we’re focusing on UH Minnesota referee Ronnie Kennedy.

The case for Kennedy

I’m not totally sure how to write about a referee’s case for making the Hall of Fame, as it’s something I’ve never done before. It’s hard enough to convince people outside of their region to emphasize the impact certain staff members have on their leagues, but it’s still easier to do for a league coordinator or a media associate, as you can measure some of their success by the number of teams in a league and the engagement they get on Facebook.

Refs are a completely different story. There are no stats for refs. I can’t tell you how many games Kennedy has refereed (it’s in the thousands), and I can’t even tell you when Kennedy starting refereeing for UH (but Alan Arlt has told me Kennedy has been around as long as he can remember).

Since there are no stats, there’s no way to prove Kennedy’s skill or quality as a referee, but I can tell you he has a high approval rating (at least, as high as you can have for being a ref) from players in Minnesota, and he gets scheduled every week he’s available in Bloomington South. He has a relationship with most of the players in the leagues he refs since he’s been working for so long, and he’s developed a friendly rapport with almost all of them. He’ll explain the calls he made, laugh off some calls players think he should have made and stay quiet when he knows it’s best to not get involved.

A big reason why a conversation around Kennedy’s case for the Hall of Fame has to be had is his involvement with “Block or Charge”, the most famous (or infamous) moment in Ultimate Hoops history.

Kennedy is on the baseline and makes the initial call of a block. After a long conversation with all three refs, Kennedy is the one who sticks with his original block call and signals it to the table. So much of what made Block or Charge such a transcendent moment was the controversy around the call. The play itself would’ve been polarizing enough, as I still believe either call would’ve sufficed. But you add the two different calls from two different refs, the fact that Kennedy gets the final call and that it benefited a Minnesota team evolved this into infamy. You could question how the call was handled, but the entire controversy around it is what makes this something that can be talked about over six years later. Kennedy is a big reason for that, and that has to be brought up in relation to the Hall of Fame.

The case against Kennedy

He’s a ref, and all players hate all refs. That’s maybe too much of a generalization, but you know it’s true. It could end up helping Kennedy, as he’s had to put up with a lot of crap for over a decade, and he still shows up every week to do it all over again.

Looking from a more logistical sense, it’s hard for voters outside of the Minnesota region to be convinced to vote for a ref they’ve never seen work a game over a player that has their entire resume online. This really would be one where players and voices with influence in multiple regions would have to step up to show appreciation for Kennedy for him to have a chance.

The other problem Kennedy will face is that the roles league coordinators and media associates serve are uniquely something you’ll find in UH, while referees are something every rec league has to offer. The quality of referee is going to vary greatly, and I believe Kennedy is on the higher end of the spectrum compared to the average ref. Whether they’re unique or not, they are necessary to run any league; and while they can be more vilified than praised, I believe they’re the unsung heroes of UH leagues.

I would give Kennedy a low probability of being nominated this year, but the conversation has to be had by the committee. I don’t think there should be a conversation regarding “if” a referee will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but focus more on “when”, and Kennedy has a stronger case than any other one that has been involved with UH.