Tommy Núñéz (September 10, 1938) is the founder of the Tommy Núñez foundation and a former

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

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

. He is the father of former NBA referee Tommy Núñez Jr. He was born in Santa Maria,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and is of Mexican American descent. In 1972 he was hired by the NBA and became the first Hispanic to referee in any major sport. After 30 years of reffing in the NBA, Tommy retired in 2002. Since retiring he puts all his time and energy into speaking to kids from coast to coast, organizing summer sports camps, youth programs or directing his National Hispanic Basketball tournament.

External links

Tommy Núñez Foundation (Official Site)
NBA referees Living people 1938 births Sportspeople from Santa Maria, California American sportspeople of Mexican descent 20th-century American sportsmen {{1930s-US-basketball-bio-stub