As Sun Tzu says: know those who oppose you.
Ed Hightower
http://www.siu.edu/bot/Hightower-bio.htmlEd Hightower was appointed to the SIU Board of Trustees in 2001. He currently serves as vice-chair of the Board and chair of the Board's Academic Matters Committee. He also serves as member of the Board’s Executive Committee; member of the Board’s Architecture and Design Committee; Board representative to the Board of Directors, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville Foundation; and alternate Board Representative to the Board of Directors, Alumni Association of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. His term expires in 2007.
Hightower, of Edwardsville (Ill.), is known nationally as an outstanding Division I basketball referee, officiating in ten NCAA Final Four tournaments. In 1999, he was named one of the top 100 St. Louis area athletes of the century, and he has received numerous awards for his professional officiating.
But as much as he enjoys basketball, Hightower makes it clear that his work as superintendent of the Edwardsville Community Unit School District is his top priority. He has served in the position since 1995 and before that was assistant superintendent for Alton schools.
Hightower is committed to the district's teachers and students. He has been recognized locally and nationally for his contributions to education, winning the 1989 Illinois Distinguished Principals Award and recognition in the 1992 Who's Who of American Educators. In 1993 he won the Illinois Principal of the Year award and the National Distinguished Principals Award.
In 1990 he received the Elijah P. Lovejoy Human Rights Award and the Illinois Jaycees 10 Outstanding Young Persons Award. He serves on the Board of Directors for Lewis and Clark Community College, St. Anthony's Hospital. He is also active in the Edwardsville/Glen Carbon Chamber of Commerce and the Edwardsville Rotary Club.
He holds bachelor's, master's and specialist degrees from SIU Edwardsville and a doctorate in education administration from St. Louis University.
He and his wife, Barbara, have two daughters, Julie and Jennifer.
Won the 1992 Naismith Award as official of the year.
James (Jim) Burr
Could not find much on him other than rants but this is what little I did find (besides his home address and phone number on the official site of one of the conferences he refs for (!!!) - which I will not post).
Mr. Burr is the current Assistant Supervisor of officials for the ECAC Division II and III. Jim also referees the Big East, Atlantic 10, Big 10, SEC and the METRO Conferences, along with numerous playoff assignments as well as NIT and NCAA appearances.
Won the 1995 Naismith Award as official of the year.
Ted Valentine was his pupil.
Ted Valentine
(as of April 2005)
Valentine, 45, started officiating intramural basketball games to earn extra money when he was an all-conference baseball player at Glenville (W.Va.) State College.
During his tenure as a high school teacher and coach, he started taking it seriously by going to the Southern Conference referee's camp in the early 1980s. As he began working the SoCon circuit, he got a break and secured a 30-game schedule with the Big 10 Conference in 1985. The rest, as they say, is history.
Over the years, Valentine has earned the reputation as a no-nonsense official who is sought after to work big games in the ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big East and Conference USA.
He's also worked the NCAA Tournament since 1990, has done three Final Fours and three national championship games.
No longer in the classroom, Valentine has made college officiating his full-time profession, working summer camps during the offseason.
Won the 2005 Naismith Award as official of the year.
Known to millions as the man who ejected former Indiana coach Bobby Knight from his home court in 1998, Valentine and his fiance Deborah White have moved to Charleston and plan to make the Lowcountry their home.
Tim Higgins
(on left)
Away from the game, he’s good-time Timmy, nicknamed "Bullet" by his pals, and he has a voracious love for his buddies, his family, pizza and hot wings.
25-plus years working D-I men’s basketball and whistled 10 Final Fours, including four championship games.
Spent his childhood in Providence, R.I.,
His brother-in-law, Patrick Hoey, perished in the north tower of the World Trade Center when it collapsed during the 9-11 attacks.
One of the last original members of the first Big East Conference officiating staff from 1979
Vice president of sales for Kamco, a Brooklyn company that sells contractor’ssupplies and heavy machinery.
Lives in Ramsey, N.J., raised three daughters – Colleen, 24, Meaghan, 22, and Patricia, 18 – with his wife of more than 25 years, Kathy.
Higgins graduated in 1964 from Dumont (N.J.) High School with a nondescript academic record and no compelling career plans.
In the summer of 1965, Higgins was enrolled at Rockland Community College in Suffern, N.Y. Following a six-month stint in the Army Reserves, it was on to Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J., in the summer of 1967.
During his years at Fairleigh Dickinson, where he graduated in 1972 and earned a business degree in 1976, Higgins took on several odd jobs to work himself through college. One of those jobs was officiating.
Won the 1994 Naismith Award as official of the year.
