Basketball Victoria would like to offer our deepest condolences to the friends and family of Life Member and refereeing icon Ron Burgess OAM, who sadly passed away today.
It’s with great sadness that we acknowledge Burgess’ extraordinary career – spanning over 60 years – as one of the true characters of the Technical Officials area.
He was committed to enhancing officiating across Victoria and Australia and took great joy in teaching the next generation of referees how to improve on the court.
Burgess had a stellar career in refereeing – having received his International (FIBA) badge in 1974 and also officiating in our top leagues including the 1981 NBL grand final.
After he retired from on-court duties, he moved into referee coaching which he continued up until his passing.
A few of his highlights across his officiating career include:
Long-serving VBRA Secretary
Victorian Rules Interpreter
Victorian Basketball Referees Association (VBRA) Life Member (1972)
VBRA Service Award (1990)
Basketball Victoria (BV) Life Member (2007)
VBRA Wall of Fame (2011)
BV Service Award - 25 years, 35 years and 50 years
Order of Australia Medal (2018)
Ron had the ability to connect with officials at all levels – using his language, humour and ability to analyse and convey game to make him one of the masters of referee coaching.
Ron touched so many of our lives across his life in basketball. The referee community was incredibly lucky to have a man of his calibre work for so many years to improve our sport across the board.
He will be sadly missed by our Technical Officials family.
Vale.
