AUGUSTA – Bob and Gertrude Butler’s most celebrated contribution to Maine high school basketball is mathematics. Just don’t ask them how many tournament games they’ve watched from opening tip to post-game celebration over the years.
His ever-smiling eyes awash with fond memories, Bob at least tries to steer that cerebral sedan down memory lane. Let’s see 56 Februarys times three classes multiplied by two genders divided by two major site changes equals thousands, that much he knows.
Bob, 80, a retired high school assistant principal and athletic director from York, has watched every game of the Western Maine Class B-C-D basketball tournament since 1950. He’s also been chief basketball statistician for the Maine Principals’ Association since 1968.
“I enjoy it. I really do,” he said. “High school basketball is exciting.”
And if you think Gertrude, 81, is a “basketball widow” during Bob’s nine days of hoop indulgence, think again. At the end of tonight’s Class C and D regional championships, Augusta Civic Center will have hosted 42 games this school vacation week. Gertrude missed two of them.
When the tournament first moved from Edward Little High School in Auburn to the capital city in the mid-1970s, preliminary games were played at the arena instead of on-campus sites. Gertrude and Bob sat through 55 games together one week.
“No, I never expected to watch this much basketball,” she admitted Thursday during a break between the afternoon and evening sessions.
No winter vacation
Their first game together was the Class A championship between John Bapst and Portland, played at Brewer High School back in 1941.
“We weren’t married then,” said Gertrude, admitting that the trip gave her fair warning.
“That was her chance to get out of it,” Bob said. “We’ve been married 60 years. Can you believe that?”
Their journey with the tourney began in the ’50s, when Bob spent every vacation week at Lewiston Armory. Those were his favorite years, he said, because of the close quarters.
“What I enjoy most is that you talk with people you don’t see the rest of the year,” Bob said.
In 1968, the executive director of the principals’ association approached Bob to ask if he’d be interested in calculating the Heal Points, the mildly complicated system used to rank teams for tournament play.
He started crunching the boys’ numbers that season. Fifteen years later, the committee called again to ask if Bob would take over the girls’ handicapping duties.
“I said, Oh, that’s OK. My wife will do them,'” Bob recalled.
They get the point(s)
Nothing brings them together like the Heals.
Bob estimates that they spend two to three hours each day working on the points in a typical December, January or February week, then all day Sunday. Their son, David, lives nearby and runs a spread sheet program on his computer.
Without fail, the numbers are posted on the Web by Tuesday afternoon, in time for the daily papers to publish them each Wednesday morning.
“I probably take longer than I should,” Bob said. “I go over them and over them to make sure they’re accurate.”
Fans and media also benefit from Bob’s expertise. He compiles all the boys’ and girls’ records in the annual souvenir program. They’re culled from a stack of forest green, self-maintained scorebooks that’s miles-high, by now.
End of an era?
Bob and Gertrude will have a heart-wrenching decision to make next year, when the Class A tournament moves from early March to the traditional B-C-D vacation week. Eastern Class A joins Western C and D in Augusta, while Western B moves to Portland.
“We’ll be tempted to follow the York kids and stay closer to home,” Bob said. “If we do, we’ll miss this.”
It reminds Bob of 1984, when he and Gertrude spent the final tournament night talking with basketball official Robin Colcord of Boothbay and his wife, Sally. Not counting custodians, the two couples were the last people in the arena.
“She finally turned to him and said, Robin, we’ve got to go.’ And he said, I just want two more minutes to look around.’ He was dying of cancer, and he knew it was his last tournament,” Butler recalled. “That’s what it meant to him.”
That’s how much Bob and Gertrude Butler love the tournament, too. And the feeling is mutual.
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