Robin Milligan Olympic referee

Press, 21 July 1988, Page 32

Robin Milligan Olympic referee

By FRANK DUGGAN More than 20 years ago, the doyen of Canterbury basketball coaches, Ray Thomson, told Robin Milligan that he was not much good as a player and advised him he might be better off as a referee. He took his advice and yesterday was appointed as a referee for the Olympic Games at Seoul in September. Mr Milligan, then a pupil at Christchurch Boys’ High School, was somewhat slighted with Mr Thomson’s appraisal, as was his brother, Keith, who got similar advice, of their playing abilities, but both accepted the suggestion and readily transferred from ball to whistle.

Mr Milligan is the first New Zealand basketball referee appointed to an Olympic Games since Messrs Brydon Harvey, of Nelson, and Basil Marsh, of Tauranga, helped officiate at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. Even then they had to pay their own way to Australia, officate at the qualifying rounds, and then hoped they made the official referees’ squad. Mr Milligan, aged 44, a Sydenham businessman, is a players’ referee. He has “been there, done that,” which players respect and appreciate. Even though his sometimes icy stare at a misdemeanour can lead to a reaction, it is halflived and invariably leads

Mr Milligan first officiated overseas at Taiwan in 1980 and has been doing it ever since. He thinks himself lucky. “Exposure at the women’s Olympic qualifying tournament in Malaysia last month helped,” said Mr Milligan yesterday. “After that I knew I was on the short list. Late last week he knew he was appointed, but was asked not to make the announcement for a week.

“I guess the week-end was more time to really feel the enjoyment of the appointment; now it has sunk in and I’m wondering what it is all about.” Apart from the official notification, Mr Milligan has no idea of how or when he is getting to South Korea. “I don’t know whether I get to

Seoul by myself or as a member of the New Zealand Olympic team, but those questions should be sorted out in the next few days.”

Twenty-eight years ago, Mr Milligan refereed his first match. “I guess when you take on a refs' task the aim is to officiate at either a World Cup or the Olympics,” he said.

Now that he had made his ambition, Mr Milligan sees his appointment as a boost for referees in New Zealand. “Three or four other people in New Zealand are just as good as I am, including John Burton (Auckland) and my brother, Keith (Christchurch),” he said. After many years as a player, referee, coach and administrator, Mr Milligan has no plans for retirement. “After last season I felt I should retire,” he said. “I was blaming everybody but myself for not calling the shots correctly. Mainly because it was a lack of fitness.”

The Canterbury Countrywide national men’s team coach, Gary Pettis, then talked him into a course at a Canterbury institute of sport. “It worked wonders, gave me back self-confidence and a willingness to continue,” said Mr Milligan. After Seoul, he has no plans to retire, “just enjoying myself and making myself a nuisance to a few players.”