Violet Palmer NBA's First Female Referee

On October thirtieth, nineteen ninety seven, was a historic day in the NBA, as Violet Palmer became the first female referee in the NBA ever and has laid the ground for not only NBA officials, for officials in other professional sports as well. As we've seen officials in other pro sports open up the gates for women for the chance to do something different and break through the men's game in a different way. We're going to dive into how she did this and how it has changed officiating to this day on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And today's trivia question to listen out for is who is the other female that made her debut in the NBA in that same year along Violet Now. Violet grew up in Compton, California, the same neighborhood as Venus and Serena Williams, and she was an avid athlete. Her mother was trying to get her involved in you know, women like things, cooking and cleaning, taking care of the house. She didn't want to do that. She wanted to go out and play with her brother's play sports and she loved it, and she was actually a very good basketball player and was able to get a basketball scholarship at cal Poly where she helped them go to the national championship in nineteen eighty five and nineteen eighty eight. Now following this, she actually became a grad assistant at cal Poly under her head coach Darlene May, who was actually the first woman to be an official for a FIFA basketball game, an international men's competition. And while she was a grad assistant, her coach Darlene said, no, what, you're helping us out as a coach, would you like to try being a head coach yourself? And Violet actually did go on to coach a women's high school basketball team, which was a challenge for her. She loved the basketball part, but there was so much in interpersonal relationships that took a lot out of her. So she got a different career and helped put on help put on you know, inner Murle and other basketball games going on. And one of the times she put it together an event, the ref didn't show up, so she got involved and this is how she got involved in refing being an official, and she slowly worked her way up. She enjoyed it. She enjoyed the expects of being a part of the game, and so she started. She made her way to high school and then made her way to college, and shortly after refing in the in the Division two NCAA tournament, she got a call from the NBA who was actually looking for great talented officials to join their ranks. And they saw her as a great official, and they had a school and everything, a training for them to come to and it was during the summer. She could do it in between seasons, and she thought it was a great opportunity just to learn. If I ever get the chance to be THEBA great, if not, that's okay. And there is a very big difference in pay. As a Division IE referee today it gets about one thousand to two thousand dollars per game, whereas an NBA official makes around seven thousand to ten thousand dollars a game. That's a big difference in just pay, and you're on a bigger scale in a bigger moment, and Violet didn't want to shy away from that moment. She wanted the chance, the opportunity to do that. So she went through the training and she wasn't the only one going through this training as d Kettner was also going through this training as she was doing similar things to Violet referee being a ref in the NCAA. And that same year, she and Violet both got contracts to ref in the WNBA and she would continue to be ref and she would continue with the NBA till two thousand and two and would become the NBA Director of Referees and become the WNBA Director of the Referees. But October thirtieth, nineteen eighty, that got her first assignment to coach to coach in the NBA in a game. Now, prior to this, she a the assignment in the Women's Final Four the WNBA the NBA Summer League, and this was by far the biggest stage she had ever been on. And the following day, on October thirty first, she coached her very first NBA game with the Vancouver Grizzlies facing off against the Dallas Mavericks in British Columbia, Canada. Now, there were mixed feelings and she got mixed reviews and everyone, but as she says, all that stuff didn't matter and she herself was feeling imposter syndrome and was in shock about everything going on until that ball flew up in the air for the jump ball, and once that happened, everything just fell into place. She officiated her game and the players played their game, and if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't even know there was a female on the court, which is exactly what she wanted. That's what officials should do. You shouldn't realize the officials there. And she would go on to ref nine hundred and nineteen NBA games before its hiring in twenty sixteen due to a knee injury, and in twenty fourteen, she would actually come out as the first open lyague gay referee in the NBA, breaking down even more walls. In twenty fourteen, she would become the first female to reference All Star Game in any of the four major United States sports, and despite retiring, she's still working behind the scenes as a coordinator for different college basketball conferences. Now. In a previous episode, we actually covered the very first female umpire in Major League baseball, but to this day there still hasn't. But she only made it to the minor leagues. There's still not been a major league a major League umpire, although Jim Powell has been placed on the MLB call up list as she is an umpire in TRIPAA Baseball and that was just done this year, so she's got so look out. Soon we may have an umpire in the Major League Baseball. And in twenty fifteen, the NFL hired their first full time NFL official in Sarah Thomas, who's gone on to become the first official for a playoff game and the Super Bowl. And in two thousand and one, Katie Gurray became the first women official in the National Hockey League. So it's taken some time for the other professional sports league in America to adopt female referees, but it is a great moment, and Violet says herself that it's about once that ball goes in the air, and as an official, people are gonna hate you, whether whether you're black, white, female, or male. Everyone hates the ref and it's actually that hate for just being a ref that feels good. You feel like you're doing what you're supposed to do because you're gonna be hated by a ref no matter what. But she says she actually gained more respect. Players would apologize for getting fouls or getting technical or being mouthy where they wouldn't do that to other refs. Maybe it's because she was female, maybe it's because her her persona, but it allowed her to continue to ref for almost twenty years and lay the groundstone for the future of females refing in men's sports. As she didn't set out to do it, she got lucky along the way and got good enough to reach the pinnacle of her sport and allowed her to have a great career that she didn't ever plan on. And if you want to learn more about women's sports, listen to Hear Her Sports, where host Elizabeth talks with great females in sports throughout all different kinds of sports and she covers a wide variety of sports and there are great conversations from people you may have never heard of. To motivate you yourself, we'll put a link in the description below for you to check out Hear Her Sports. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please share it wherever you're at. Hit that little triangle button wherever you're listening and send it over to a buddy, send them in their DMS cinema text saying hey, check out Daily Sports History. So we can become better in our sports knowledge together and come back tomorrow for more data esports history and did you catch the answer to today's trivia question? Who was the other female reef in nineteen ninety seven that broke down the barriers with Violet. Her name was de Cantor.