DULUTH — When Hermantown took the floor against Duluth Denfeld Dec. 20, it didn’t seem different from any other local girls basketball game.
Maybe there were a few more people in the stands — it was a Friday night, after all.
Hoops community KaileeStrong For Duluth East assistant coachHoops community KaileeStrong For Duluth East assistant coach
The girls came out for warm-ups and eventually coaches and captains gathered at the scorers table to meet with the evening’s officials.
What stood out was not the Hawks’ 69-38 win over Denfeld , but the referees calling the game combined for more than 150 years of officiating experience. Steve Olson, Jim Erzar and Jerry Ujdur have all been calling basketball in the Twin Ports for at least 50 years.
At 54 years, Erzar has been calling games the longest of the three, but that’s just the games he’s been paid to referee. Growing up playing basketball and baseball in Ely, Erzar was required by his coach to call elementary school games on Saturdays.
“When I was 13, I was jumped behind the plate to call Little League games,” he said
It wasn’t long before he was on the court calling youth basketball, moving up through the levels until he was calling varsity games.
Ujdur said his older brother introduced him to officiating, and Olson didn’t even play basketball as a young man, but was already calling baseball with Steve Vekich.
