Photo recall: Still loud and proud

When in 1983 the Auckland Referees' Association refused to officiate matches involving John Dybvig's team if he was on the bench, he made light of the situation. ";I took it as a big joke," he says now of the showdown. Photo / NZ Herald

It's not easy trying to shut John Dybvig up. Many tried, and failed, across his headline-grabbing career as a basketball coach and he's still a controversial figure in Auckland school sports.

Few in New Zealand had seen Dybvig's type before when he arrived here in 1980 to take up a job coaching Napier in the Countrywide national league. He was loud, brash, confrontational and vulgar and his swearing rivalled anything on a Vincent Tarantino movie.

Referees were often on the receiving end of his tawdry tongue and in 1983 a handful of them had had enough.

After one game, when he received three technical fouls and later verbally abused a referee in public, the Auckland Referees' Association passed a resolution saying they wouldn't control games involving Dybvig.

"I took it as a big joke," the 64-year-old said. "I couldn't believe they were serious. If one guy can cause you to get that upset, you are pretty weak. All I did was yell and scream and push. I was very vocal."

He was also quite aggressive. He once got into a fight with a referee in the US and admitted to kicking down a door to a referee's changing room. In his first game in New Zealand, he took his frustrations out on a nearby wooden chair.

"The damn thing splintered into a million pieces," he says. "Everyone went nuts. I went, 'well, you have to get stronger chairs or something'."

It wasn't only referees Dybvig upset, and his battles with the authorities were often as feisty.

In 1981 he was banned from New Plymouth's stadiums, in 1983 he was sacked as New Zealand women's coach after a run-in with a bus driver and in 1985 he was banned from the game for two years after his Napier side were late to emerge for a game.

"It was a wild time," he remembers. "I loved it. It was rip, shit and bust, unpredictable and very competitive. There weren't a lot of professional coaches in those days and I came over from the States and I was used to a different style."

He wrote a book, Technical Foul, which ranked the top 10 referees in this country. The first three entries were left blank, as were the ninth and 10th. He described one as "a madman with a whistle in his mouth" and another "a smiling barracuda with a knife behind his back".

John Burton, who was one of the top officials throughout the 1980s, was labelled The Peacock.

"I quite liked that," Burton says, "supposedly because I gave the impression of not being intimidated by him. But many other referees were and calls that should have been made weren't because of him.

"He had skills as a coach. It was just a pity that some of his mannerisms and techniques left a little to be desired. It certainly brought basketball into the spotlight but there were things I was embarrassed about.

"Some public who came to enjoy the game, many left in horror as to what was happening. Some outbursts were uncontrolled and detrimental to the game, especially his language.

"He was very knowledgeable and knew the rules. Maybe he could have been a great referee."

These days, Dybvig coaches his son's high school side. He's careful not to swear but he's still loud. The opposition school often send a teacher to stand next to him.

"I say, 'what the hell are you going to do? Noise is not a crime'."

He was also "fired" as coach of the local primary school side because someone complained he yelled Jesus Christ while on the sideline. He teaches Bible classes at that same Auckland school.

Dybvig has few regrets.

"Maybe a couple of substitutions I made at the wrong time," he laughs.

"You look back and think, 'I might have done something different here or there' but you are who you are. That's my personality and I never backed off.

"You look back on it and go, 'yeah, big deal. What did the guy do?' Make a lot of noise and broke a few chairs. My committee at Ponsonby were the only smart ones. They went and got plastic chairs."