Trombetta, 79, works solo as hoops referee

VINCE TROMBETTA has no problem remembering the particulars of his first crack at reffing basketball games.

He was a student at West Chester University. The contest was intramural. The pay was a dollar. He worked it alone.

"We didn't finish," Trombetta said. "Remember Chuck Weber, the guy who replaced Chuck Bednarik as the Eagles' middle linebacker? He got mad and ran me out of the gym."

Is your mind racing? Should be. That scenario occurred in the early 1950s.

Thursday, Trombetta again found himself performing a solo act. One month short of his 80th birthday, he did a marvelous job over 2 hours, 19 minutes, as Palmer Charter topped visiting Palumbo, 99-96, in three overtimes.

When Amir Davis, one of Palmer's heroes, was told Trombetta's age, his eyes almost departed their sockets.

One player's mother said later: "I thought someone said he's almost 70. He's gonna be 80?! God bless him."

Trombetta was scheduled to work with Norman Winston; a family emergency kept him away. Ben Dubin, the Public League hoops chairman, scrambled to find a replacement and sent word that Ron Arthur could arrive by 4. It was already 3:30, 15 minutes past the listed starting time, and all concerned - Trombetta, coaches Will Mega (Palmer) and Tim Castanza (Palumbo) - decided to forge ahead.

Trombetta is a longtime football coach. He was Ben Franklin's boss for 24 seasons ending in 1992, then became Edward Bok Tech's defensive coordinator. He filled that same role this past season at Murrell Dobbins Tech.

Before the game, Trombetta said: "Ah, this'll go OK. It's funny. When there's one ref, the kids usually respect that. They don't try to cheat [with extra grabbing/pushing]."

Understandably, Trombetta mostly cruised from foul line to foul line.

"You have to pick your spots when to go a little further," he said. "On certain plays, yeah, you try to get in there closer. The game had a good flow. There were some hard fouls, sure, but there wasn't any cheap stuff. I lucked out on the plays where the ball went over the baseline. Usually, good slaps sent it over. It was obvious what to call."

Davis, who scored 31 points before fouling out in the second OT, said of Trombetta's performance: "We knew what he was facing. He couldn't run all the way up and down. We respected the job he did. Even if I disagreed a little, I just said, 'OK, Mr. Referee. Good call.' "

At game's end, Trombetta still looked chipper.

"I'm fine," he insisted. "Really. I'm not tired."

Just then, Palmer assistant Rob Wharton walked over and said with a laugh to Trombetta: "Hey, there's a place around the corner where you can get a massage. If you want to go, it's on me."

"Trom" shot back, "I doubt they want to give a massage to someone who's almost 80."