COLLEGE BASKETBALL : Forgive Him if He Makes Some Wild Calls
Billy Gianquinto is a college basketball official and if there’s one thing he really enjoys, it’s blowing a call.
But when Gianquinto blows a call, he isn’t making a mistake on goaltending or a three-second violation, he’s calling a pintail or a mallard or a teal or a widgeon. The creator of three instructional videotapes, Gianquinto explained his off-the-court work: “I teach people how to call ducks.”
That would seem easy enough. Just look up their numbers in the book. But, hey, let’s get serious. The true duck hunter knows how vital a good duck call is out there on those cold, drippy mornings. This is where Gianquinto comes in.
The 44-year-old San Francisco native, who has been calling West Coast Conference and Big West basketball games for 10 years, has waterfowl-calling schools in Santa Rosa.
Gianquinto said he found his inspiration one night during a timeout of a game he was officiating.
As he blew softly through his referee’s whistle, Gianquinto realized that he could develop a new duck call. Later, he modified the whistle by filing its insides and sliding a piece of cork inside the mouthpiece.
“All ducks quack, but most ducks whistle,” Gianquinto said. “Most people don’t know that.”
Once a duck hears Gianquinto’s whistle, he’s probably through traveling. The secret is not to think like a pintail.
“Everybody thinks of a duck, they think of . . . a mallard,” Gianquinto said. “See, the most abundant duck we have here on the West Coast is what we call a pintail. And that’s a whistling bird. It very rarely quacks.”
Gianquinto went to City College of San Francisco, where he played football with O.J. Simpson, then on to the University of Idaho and San Francisco State. He was the football coach at Piner High in Santa Rosa for 13 years before getting into the duck-calling business. When Gianquinto isn’t carrying his whistle into the field, he’s carrying it onto the court. He will officiate his 46th game of the basketball season tonight when Loyola plays host to the University of San Diego.
Pepperdine Coach Tom Asbury said of Gianquinto’s officiating: “I think he’s a good, solid official. He just calls a good, consistent, but not flashy game. That’s all you can ask, I think.”
Coach Joe Harrington of Cal State Long Beach is anticipating Gianquinto’s appearance at one of the 49ers’ games: “When he comes out, maybe he’ll give me a quack.”
A lifelong fisherman, Gianquinto didn’t begin hunting until he was 18. And his first experience with hunting provided no clue that, as far as occupations go, ducks would eventually fill the bill.
“I hated to duck-hunt because I went out in the cold weather one time and I fell in the water with my boots on and almost drowned,” Gianquinto said. “I told the guy, ‘If you ever ask me to do this again, I’m gonna punch you right in the chops.’ But I went again and fell in love with it.”
Gianquinto may be widely known in duck-calling circles, but only recently have basketball fans begun associating the duck caller with the official. After he had conducted a duck-calling seminar in Seattle, he officiated a game at Gonzaga, across the state in Spokane. A group of spectators who had been to Gianquinto’s seminar blew duck calls each time he made a call.
Not long ago, Gianquinto received an honorary degree at San Francisco State.
“They made me doctor of quackology.”
Shark attack: After The Times reported Sunday that player Anthony Jones drove a sports car belonging to a Nevada Las Vegas supporter during the 1985-86 season, an apparent violation of NCAA rules, Coach Jerry Tarkanian took his case before a friendly audience.
Tarkanian went on the offensive Tuesday at his weekly talk to members of the Rebel Athletic Club before about 100 in the Thomas & Mack Center. His remarks were interrupted by sustained applause.
Tarkanian berated the press for its coverage of his program and charged that reporters are swayed by their perception of Las Vegas as a city.
“The sad thing is that around the country so many people take shots at UNLV and Las Vegas. . . . The perception everywhere is that we have hookers and the Mafia,” he said. “That’s what other schools tell a recruit’s mom. Then she’s afraid some hooker’s going to get her son.”
Tarkanian also criticized media reports on the suspensions for fighting handed UNLV players Chris Jeter and Moses Scurry after a brawl at a game against Utah State earlier this month.
“I would think everybody would gather together, including the media,” Tarkanian said. “I know you media guys have a job to do. But you TV guys don’t need to run (videotapes of the fight) every hour. And you writers don’t need to attack a 19-year-old (Jeter).”
Knightline: Newest 900 phone number is the one for Indiana Coach Bobby Knight, featured on the Personality Line, of Columbus, Ohio, a company that also is negotiating with new heavyweight boxing champion Buster Douglas. Advertisements for the new call-in feature claim Knight will be “fiery . . . infuriating.”
This week, though, callers heard Knight criticize late starting times for weeknight games because of television, one of his pet peeves.
Callers then could tape questions for Knight and among them were how he maintained his winning edge, why he had someone on his television show and whether he was a wimp for once pulling his team off the floor during an exhibition game with a Soviet basketball team.
After that, Knight answered some of last week’s questions. He said he liked Dick Vitale; admired such women as Joan of Arc, his grandmother, mother, wife and his sister in Ft. Wayne, Ind.--”not necessarily in that order”--likes the six-foul rule and likes country music, especially singer Ray Stevens.
The fiery and infuriating stuff must be coming next week.