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NBA referee Paul Mihalak, an Erie native, remembered for helping other referees

VaselineJune 27, 2024

0 5 minutes read

NBA referee Paul Mihalak, an Erie native, remembered for helping other referees

A referee willing to take a fan’s advice sounds unfathomable in today’s world.

It’s even hard to imagine that that was in 1977, when Mark Schumacher was at the beginning of more than forty years as an athletics official.

Still, Schumacher listened intently to a spectator’s suggestions after a sanctioned softball game that summer.

However, this was no ordinary spectator.

The man Schumacher was listening to was Paul Mihalak, an Erie native who had been an NBA official for almost a decade at the time.

Mihalak, aware that the middle of the battle was not the time for such dialogue, waited until after the last ball to try to advance Schumacher.

That he observed Schumacher’s behavior towards the players, more than ball-of-strike or safe-or-out calls, was telling.

“He said, ‘Maybe use a little humor with this guy, but you can bully this guy a little bit,’” Schumacher said. “He told me all the nuances or possible positions you could take (during an argument). Not only did he make perfect sense, but they were absolutely true.”

“In my 47 years as an official, there was not one thing Paul ever told me was wrong.”

Schumacher recalled that moment when talking about Mihalak, who died on May 1 from complications of lung surgery. The Cathedral Prep graduate, who was inducted into the city’s gymnasium last year, was 84.

From Kareem to Kobe

Prep’s athletic hall of fame was the last of three such hall inductions Mihalak experienced. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, which followed his 1986 enshrinement for the Metropolitan Erie chapter.

Mihalak was part of Metro Erie’s original class, even though he was not yet halfway through an eventual career as an NBA official that lasted nearly 30 years.

Working as a PIAA football and basketball referee was one of the jobs Mihalak held during the decade after graduating from Prep in 1957. His opportunity to officiate at the NBA level came through a tryout camp in Buffalo.

That camp took place in 1969. Mihalak was so good that that fall he found himself calling NBA regular-season games.

One of the NBA’s rookies for the 1969-70 season was Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The 38,387 points he scored between that season and his retirement in 1989 were the most in league history until LeBron James surpassed that total in 2023.

One of the NBA’s rookies at the time of Mihalak’s retirement in 1997 was Kobe Bryant. The same Kobe Bryant who less than a year earlier led Lower Merion to a 48-43 victory against Prep, Mihalak’s varsity alma mater, in the PIAA Class 4A boys basketball final.

In between, Mihalak officiated more than 2,000 regular-season NBA games. That total does not include his active role in more than 120 playoff games and four All-Star games.

Mihalak retired when the physical strain of officiating all those matches became too much. He discussed his decision in an April 1997 interview with former Erie Times-News sports editor Jim Camp.

“It was an admirable parting of the ways,” Mihalak said. “I wanted to continue for another year, but it just didn’t work out.”

Explanations from ‘Statistics’

Rick Klapthor was a Strong Vincent student in 1975 when he first met Mihalak at the school’s senior sports banquet.

The Gannon University graduate, who was inducted into the athletic hall of fame in 2014 for his long tenure as the team’s official scorer, didn’t see Mihalak in action until late in his career.

It was March 1993 when Klapthor attended the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament games in Orlando, Florida. Coincidentally, he learned that Mihalak would officiate the NBA game between the host Orlando Magic and rival Miami Heat three days later.

Watching Mihalak before the opening tip confirmed for Klapthor what Schumacher also said about Mihalak. He was the rare official who was chatty with the players.

“Every player on every layup line talked to him before the game,” Klapthor said. “That’s just how he was. That’s how he got to know the players.”

Klapthor, who mentioned Mihalak as someone who gave him his nickname “Stats,” last saw Mihalak at Wegmans about five years ago. Before then, he said they would occasionally run into each other at the Plymouth Tavern.

When you hear Mihalak tell NBA war stories at Erie’s famous bar and grill, Klapthor will remember him.

“It didn’t get any better than when Paul was holding court,” Klapthor said.

Operation Slam Dunk

Mihalak’s career was not without controversy.

His most notable blemish was off the field, not on it.

Mihalak was one of 43 NBA officials involved in Operation Slam Dunk, the nickname for a 1994 criminal tax investigation by the Internal Revenue Service.

The NBA made sure its referees had first-class seats on flights. Despite earning as much as $177,000 per season, some began the personal practice of downgrading their seats to coach and pocketing the difference.

The IRS received an anonymous tip that these sponsors had not reported the difference on their income taxes.

The Times-News reported that Mihalak admitted he failed to tell the IRS about the more than $31,000 he earned in 1993 by not reporting that difference. It was in December 1998 in federal court in Erie that he pleaded guilty to the charges.

Because Mihalak pleaded guilty, he received a fine and probation, but no jail time. He declined to comment, but his attorney, Leonard Ambrose, told the Times-News: “What Paul did, countless referees did. There is substantial evidence that the NBA knew what was going on and everyone just went about their business.”

A ‘master’ in his profession

Schumacher, 71, said Joey Crawford and Steve Javie were other veteran NBA officials who attended services for Mihalak.

Schumacher also said that Mihalak’s outgoing attitude for such a role likely helped him amid the constant action of an NBA game.

“One of his master skills was that he could talk faster than any human being I’ve ever heard,” Schumacher said. But he also made perfect sense throughout the whole barrage of language he threw at you. If you work in such an environment, where you hear it from all sides, he has been able to elevate himself. It got to the point where no one would go after him if they wanted to vent.”

“If they did, they paid a price.”

Scholarship in the name of Mihalak

Mihalak was preceded in death by his parents, Paul and Ann Vasilik Mihalak; a brother, Richard Mihalak; and an infant son, Patrick Lee Mihalak.

Survivors include his wife of 64 years, Judy Weber Mihalak; four daughters, Pamela Butz and her husband, Brian; Christine Spooner and her husband Bill; Terra Wible and her husband, Kevin; and Debra Mihalak-Hensler; a son, Douglas Mihalak; a sister, Sue Ortallono; a sister-in-law, Patsy Mihalak; and many grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Arrangements were handled by Burton Quinn-Scott Cremation & Funeral Services Inc., West Ridge, 3801 W. The 26th St. Mass was held at St. George Catholic Church and burial was in St. James Cemetery in Crossingville.

Memorials for a scholarship in Mihalak’s name may be made to the Cathedral Preparatory School, 250 W. 10th St., Erie, PA 16501.

Contact Mike Copper at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNcopper.

VaselineJune 27, 2024

0 5 minutes read