Basketball official retires after final game at Hoosier Gym. 'It's an absolute jewel.'

Dave Berkemeier’s final night as a basketball official was memorable for many reasons, including the location, his officiating partner and the people in the crowd.

Berkemeier, 69, worked his final game last week at the Hoosier Gym in Knightstown, a bit of good fortune for the Rushville native. The eighth-grade boys and girls doubleheader Feb. 1 between Hamilton Heights and Tipton was a makeup date due to a weather postponement.

Berkemeier’s nephew, Ryan Berkemeier, was scheduled to work the games with another person. But when his partner had a conflict with a high school girls’ sectional game, he called his uncle.

And what better way, Dave Berkemeier thought, than to officiate his final game at the Hoosier Gym, made famous in the 1986 movie “Hoosiers”?

“It’s an absolute jewel,” Berkemeier said of the gym, built in 1921. “I’d never worked a game there so I thought if that’s going to be my last game, what a phenomenal place to do it.”

Berkemeier, a 1971 Rushville graduate, was introduced to officiating by Bill Gray, a longtime coach and teacher at Rushville who also worked as an official in basketball, football and track and started an “Officials Club” to mentor young referees.

“I worked little county schools, fifth and sixth-grade games, and got an interest in it,” Berkemeier said.

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Over 51 years, Berkemeier mostly worked a lot of junior varsity and middle school games, along with some varsity games. He said he worked about 100 to 150 games a year at his peak. But he also took some time off during his two terms in the 1990s as the mayor of Tipton, ironically, one of the schools involved in his final game at the Hoosier Gym.

“I saw a lot of people that I knew on both sides,” said Berkemeier, who joked that he got yelled at enough as mayor that he did not need it during at night, too, as a referee. “I’ve done a lot of basketball games over the years, though, and I’d say 90% of the time it’s been excellent. I talk to people in the crowd and don’t mind people yelling at me. I’m very open to criticism. I’ve got the whistle, but I’ll listen if you disagree with me.”

Berkemeier’s final night officiating was memorable for other reasons. His mother, 94-year-old Mabel Berkemeier, was in the front row for the game. She was a yell leader for the Rushville Lions in the 1940s.

“She wanted to wear her Rushville cheerleading outfit,” said Ryan, her grandson. “She still gets around to the great-grandkids basketball and baseball games and dance recitals. She was like, ‘I gotta go to this,’ (game at Hoosier Gym).”

Ryan, a teacher at Waldron, got his start officiating similarly to his uncle. When he was attending Rushville (he graduated in 1996), he was introduced to officiating by then-assistant athletic director Sandra Walter, who is now the athletic director at Franklin Central after working as an assistant commissioner for the Indiana High School Athletic Association.

“The biggest thing for me I get out of officiating is that I enjoy working with middle school and high school kids in the daytime and it’s a way for me to give back,” said Ryan, who started working high school games in 2007 and worked the girls’ sectional last week at Southern Wells. “I can’t really play anymore, but I can get up and down the court. I like to have fun with the players and maybe educate them a little bit if I can. It’s an extension of the classroom.”

Dave Berkemeier also worked baseball games with his nephew. But he gave that up, too, his aching knees helping to make that decision for him. Dave and his wife, Mary Beth, moved to Evansville seven years ago to be closer to their daughters, Angie and Amy, and their grandchildren. Dave, a Ball State graduate, had worked in journalism prior to his time as Tipton’s mayor, writing for the Rushville Republican, the Elwood Call-Leader and working in radio and television. After his tenure as mayor, he became a financial advisor with an Edwards Jones office he owned and managed in Elwood for 15 years until his retirement in 2015.

The Hoosier Gym honored Berkemeier before his final game and he stayed long after the buzzer sounded on his final game.

“It was really cool how it all came together and for him to end his career with people he knew,” Ryan said. “They had to shut the lights off to get us to leave.”

Dave said he will take a lot of memories with him into officiating retirement. He remembers working a junior varsity game New Castle in the 1970s against Muncie South when the gym was already packed for his game. There were a few moments where a mentally or physically challenged player was allowed to score a basket during the game that stuck with him.

But now it is time to retire the whistle, travel with his wife and spend time with the grandkids.

“I couldn’t think of a better way to officiate my last game,” he said.

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Official retires after 51 years with final game at Hoosier Gym, nephew