One of my favorite places to work was Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary.

MLS, along with Saginaw Valley Lutheran, were great places to officiate, because, of all the places I officiated, their coaches and fans had the best sportsmanship. I don’t think I ever got booed by the home team fans at either place.

I officiated football, baseball, softball, and basketball at MLS and have a lot of pleasant and sometimes funny memories (and at least one not so pleasant).

I loved going there for football, as their coach at the time was Loren Dietrich.

Loren taught biology, along with coaching football, and I also taught biology, so we had a lot in common.

One year, Loren called me and asked me if I would come to one of his preseason practices and give his players some insights as to how we officials work. I agreed, and that became a standard event for several years.

I would go over new rules, explain old rules, explain what our different official position responsibilities were, etc. I would get players up to demonstrate what would be considered a holding penalty or other violations. The kids could ask questions, and they did. It made for a very pleasant night.

As a teacher, you love it when the whole class is interested and wants to learn, and I had 100% interest from the team.

MLS went above and beyond in many ways.

I remember getting booed terribly by the opposing football fans on a correct call that I made. It pertained to a rule that might at first blush seem unfair. But it’s a rule.

The visiting team, Breckenridge, was driving to score a touchdown near the end of the first half. They ran a running play around the right end and, as the back neared the end zone and a touchdown, he fumbled the ball on the two-yard line. The ball bounced into the end zone and then bounced out of bounds.

I correctly ruled the play a touchback, giving the ball to MLS on the 20-yard line.

The Breckenridge fans disagreed loudly. Before the start of the second half, MLS had their announcer read the rule to the fans so that they knew we had called the play correctly. I appreciated that.

A funny incident happened in a girls’ basketball game at MLS.

It was against St. Louis, and the reason I can remember it is it involved the St. Louis coach. His name was Doug Steward, and he was difficult to forget, as he was 6-foot, 7-inches tall, with a booming voice.

I was running down the court and turned around to run backwards so I could watch the play. I was near the centercourt line and in front of the scorer’s table. I caught my heel and hit the floor on my butt and slid a few feet.

Before I could get up, I heard a loud “safe” shouted from somewhere on the side of the court.

Now the only people on that side of the court were the coaches, teams, and the timers and scorers.

Soon after my “safe” slide, we had a time out called.

I went to the scorer’s table, and, as I knew the timer and scorer quite well, said, “All right, which one of you called me safe?”

Before anyone could answer, I heard Doug, with his deep voice: “Heh, heh, heh … I called you safe, because you were.”

We both got a good chuckle out of it.

The not-so-pleasant MLS event happened at another basketball game.

It was during a time out. I was standing at the scorers table when the scorer turned on the PA system and made an announcement: “Your attention please … One of our school buses had difficulty making the turn down the alley to the east of the gym. The bus scraped a car parked there.”

The announcement proceeded to give the license plate number and description of MY car.

Another event at MLS made my list of memories.

I got a call from the Michigan Lutheran Seminary athletic director telling me that they were organizing a public panel to discuss sportsmanship and similar topics with their students and families.

Jack Roberts, then head of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, was going to be on the panel, along with some local school principals, athletic directors, and coaches. They wanted me to represent the officiating community.

I was honored to be asked, and it was a great event.

Les Miller, of Hubbard Lake, has retired after 53 years officiating multiple sports around Michigan. He can be reached at theoldref@yahoo.com.