This story originally appeared in the March 22 edition of the weekly LINK Reader. To get these stories first, subscribe here.
Charlie Chappie owes his 50-year officiating career to an official who failed to arrive for a church league basketball game in Covington in 1973.
“I used to keep the scorebook for men’s basketball games in the league,” Chappie said. “We played at Southside Baptist Church on Holman Street in Covington. It was a long time ago.”
Even so, Chappie remembers it well.
“One of the officials didn’t show up for one of the games one day,” he said. “An official who was there had an extra shirt and a whistle. He looked at me and said, ‘Come on and try this.’ So I did.”
Chappie, then 17 years old and a senior at Holmes High School, went into a room at the church, pulled on a black and white striped shirt and tucked it into his pants. He hung the whistle around his neck and emerged as part of a two-man crew for an otherwise nondescript church league game on Covington’s west side.
“It was an adrenaline rush. I was nervous,” Chappie said, “but I enjoyed it and kept doing it.”
He was surprised by the development.
He played sports while living in Covington, and he played baseball and football at Holmes as a senior, but there was no overriding passion to enforce rules and undergo the antagonism that seemed to come with rules enforcement.
“Nothing like that at all,” Chappie said. “I was a kid. I had no idea what I was going to do.”
High school basketball officials have been taking grief ever since their introduction in the name of fairness. Heckling from the crowd is part of the job for officials who make unpopular calls. But this was something Chappie never really gave a lot of thought to as a teenager.
Being a basketball official was about as far from Chappie’s mind as it could possibly be in 1973. The officiating experience at Southside Baptist would be a one-off moment in his life, he reckoned. “I thought I’d just go back to the scorebook,” he said.
But something unexpected happened to Chappie on his path away from officiating. He became an official.
“Had you told me in 1974 I would be a basketball official for 50 years,” Chappie said, “I would have looked at you like you had three heads.”
Chappie wound up officiating a few more church league games. He graduated from Holmes in 1973. Chappie started taking classes at Northern Kentucky University, where he stayed for two years. He got a job at a drug store in Covington.
One thing led to another, and he eventually became a certified basketball official when he turned 18 and began working games at the eighth grade, freshman and junior varsity levels. Eventually, he officiated his first varsity basketball game at Holmes.
He never stopped.
A half-century later, Chappie was still at it, calling boys and girls basketball games. He estimates he’s been an official at more than 3,000 games. At his peak, he figures he officiated as many as 90 basketball games a season. Basketball is the only sport he officiates, nearly all of it at the high school level in Northern Kentucky – all while holding down a full-time job and being a devoted family man.
“I enjoy the high school game. I enjoy being around the kids,” Chappie said. “It’s good exercise. It can be a grind when you do it a long time, but I really don’t think about it a lot. It’s just something I’ve always done.”
Along the way, Chappie has experienced several milestones in his life: He landed a job as a warehouse manager for a beverage distribution company, the first of two long-term positions in the beverage industry totaling 45 years. He married his sweetheart. The couple raised one daughter and celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary in April.
“I couldn’t have done it without my family,” Chappie said. “They have always been supportive.”
His experience includes just about all that is possible as an official, including heckling.
“Fortunately, I can block that out and ignore it. You have to have a short memory and just go on,” he said. “The officials, we’re our own worst critics. If we miss a call, we’re upset with ourselves.”
Chappie has made a lot of correct calls in his career. That’s why he’s been around so long at one of the more difficult and visible part-time jobs. He eventually joined the 9th Region Basketball Officials Association. Chappie has officiated many important games, including district tournament games, regional tournament games, state tournament games and all-star games.
He has many awards and honors. He has some of them on his sports wall in what is slowly becoming a mancave of sorts at his home in Covington.
“I might have to do some rearranging,” he said. “A lot of people have been really nice lately.”
That’s because it’s all coming to an end. Chappie’s 50th season as a basketball official is also his last.
“It’s been a nice long ride. I’m a lucky man. It just got to a point where I didn’t know how long I could keep doing it,” said Chappie, who turned 68 in January. “Fifty years did kind of play into it a bit. That’s a lot of running up and down the basketball court. It takes a toll on your body. I’ve had two knee surgeries.”
He has no regrets.
“None at all,” he said. “I’ve really enjoyed it.”
The feelings have been mutual.
As he made some last stops, various high schools gave Chappie some parting gifts, including commemorative game balls, plaques, a jersey with the No. 50 on it, and a specially engraved piece of the original hardwood floor at Holmes’ David M. Evans Fieldhouse. He received a ring from the 9th Region Basketball Officials Association.
Just like the first high school basketball game he officiated in 1974, Chappie’s final regular season game in 2024 was a boys contest at Holmes, his alma mater. After the game, he got recognition at the 9th Region Basketball Officials Association’s end-of-season social.
His last district tournament game was March 1 at the 36th District semifinal won by Newport, one of many talent-laden teams Chappie has seen play basketball over his long and distinguished career.
“I’ve had a lot of great memories being an official. I’ve been blessed beyond belief,” he said. “But, at some point, it’s just time. And for me, it’s time to go.”