John Joseph Vanak (1933 – November 26, 2016) was a referee in the American Basketball Association and the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

.Pluto, Terry, 'Loose Balls: The Short, Wild Life of the American Basketball Association, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990, , p.131-133 He was a United States Navy Veteran serving during the Korean War on the USS Roosevelt. He was first employed as a sergeant for the

Lansford, Pennsylvania Lansford is a county-border borough (town) in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is located northwest of Allentown and 19 miles south of Hazleton in the Panther Creek Valley about from Philadelphia and ab ...

Police Department. Vanak was also the owner of the Vanak Detective Agency for over 30 years. His boyhood nickname was "Punchy". Vanak began refereeing junior high games in 1956 to stay in shape and pick up cigarette money, but it was not until 1959 that he started to officiate in earnest. Vanak worked in the old American Basketball League (ABL), a league created by Harlem Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein in 1961 and which lasted less than two seasons. Then he went on to the NBA at a time when the officials were permitted some showing of personality in their profession. He officiated during his first go-around in the NBA from 1962-1969. For half of those years he continued working as a $4,100-a-year policeman and he worked for at the private detective agency. In 1969, when the upstart American Basketball Association was raiding the NBA for talent, Vanak, along with three other top NBA "lead" referees— Joe Gushue,

Earl Strom Earl "Yogi" Strom (December 15, 1927 – July 10, 1994) was an American professional basketball referee for 29 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and for three years in the American Basketball Association (ABA). Strom is cre ...

and

Norm Drucker Norm Drucker (July 4, 1920 – February 6, 2015) was a major influence in professional basketball officiating for over 35 years. His NBA and ABA officiating career as both a referee and Supervisor of Officials spanned the careers of all-time pro ba ...

—jumped to the ABA with multi-year contracts paying much higher salaries than NBA officials received. As a result, professional officiating salaries dramatically increased. The ABA battled the NBA for nine years, and eventually four ABA teams were absorbed into the NBA in 1976 to end the ABA. The ABA "merger" effectively modernized the NBA with the 3-point shot, the highlight dunking and fast break game and the advent of free agency. Amidst the drives and dunks and changing dress and hairstyles of the 1970s, was the professionalization of officiating, which had been a per diem profession before then. NBA officials were still being paid by the game into the 1960s, up to $125. Vanek officiated from 1976 until 1988 in his second go-around in the NBA. Vanak officiated in the 1966 NBA All-Star Game,

1970 ABA All-Star Game The third American Basketball Association All-Star Game was played on January 24, 1970, at Indiana State Fair Coliseum in Indianapolis, Indiana before an audience at 11,932. Bobby Leonard of the Indiana Pacers coached the East, with Babe McCarthy ...

1972 ABA All-Star Game The fifth American Basketball Association All-Star Game was played January 29, 1972 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky before an audience at 15,738. Joe Mullaney of the Kentucky Colonels coached the East, with LaDell Andersen of the Utah Stars ...

1974 ABA All-Star Game The seventh American Basketball Association All-Star Game was played January 30, 1974 at Norfolk Scope in Norfolk, Virginia before an audience at 10,624. Babe McCarthy of the Kentucky Colonels coached the East, while Joe Mullaney of the Utah Stars ...

1977 NBA Finals The 1977 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1976–77 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Portland Trail Blazers played ag ...

1979 NBA All-Star Game The 1979 NBA All-Star Game was an exhibition basketball game which was played on February 4, 1979, at the Pontiac Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. *Coaches: East: Dick Motta, West: Lenny Wilkens. *Officials: John Vanak, Ja ...

1980 NBA Finals The 1980 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1979–80 season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeated the E ...

1981 NBA Finals The 1981 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1980–81 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. It pitted the 62–20 Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics a ...

1983 NBA Finals The 1983 NBA World Championship Series, also known as Showdown '83, was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1982–83 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. It was the last NBA Championship Serie ...

, 1984 NBA All-Star Game and

1985 NBA Finals The 1985 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 1984–85 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. It featured the defending NBA champion and Eastern Conference pl ...

. Vanek was chosen as the league's best official in 1978-79 and reffed a total of 3,028 games in the NBA and ABA, 328 playoff games, 31 finals and seven all-star games.

References

External links

Discussion of the professional life of John Vanak by Sam Smith the author of the best-selling book “The Jordan Rules.”

Vanek's Obituary

1979 Spurs Playoff Elimination

Sports Illustrated Article October 15, 1973, The Highest Accolade is Silence

Vanek restraining Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, April 1966
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanak, John 2016 deaths American Basketball Association referees National Basketball Association referees People from Carbon County, Pennsylvania 1933 births