It took David Craig nearly two decades to earn a spot as a basketball official in a state tournament.

Once he got there, however, he became as regular a fixture at State Fair Arena as any other.

Craig’s service as a high school basketball official will be honored later this month when he’s set to be inducted into the Oklahoma Officials Association Hall of Fame.

Now a senior vice president at Community National Bank in Okarche, Craig is part of a five-member class of 2022 who will be inducted during a 1 p.m. ceremony July 23 at Shawnee High School in conjunction with the OOA Summer Convention.

Joining him will be Randy Jeffers of Tulsa, James “Jim” Perry of Stillwater, Charley Wyatt of Tishomingo and Tony Gwinn, formerly of Del City (posthumously).

“It’s a pretty great honor,” said Craig. “Especially considering I was doing something I enjoyed so much.”

He’s being honored for a career that spanned 37 years on the state’s hardwood courts.

That career includes being selected to officiate 18 state tournaments, including nine state championship games.

However, donning the signature striped shirt and Fox 40 whistle wasn’t a guarantee to get to call at state, just as it wasn’t for just any basketball team that took to the court.

“I was halfway through my career before I made state tournament,” Craig said. “It was tougher then for officials to make it.”

Making it tougher on Craig – at least he thought at the time – was the fact he was living in Texas in some of the early stages of his officiating career.

A 1977 Drummond High School graduate, Craig then attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford where he was a four-year member of the rodeo team.

While at SWOSU, Craig was encouraged by the Johnson triplets – Jerry, Larry and Gary, wellknown in Oklahoma education and basketball circles in their own rights – to take an officiating class.

“They were officiating and said, ‘Take this class… it’s a one-hour elective and you can call some games with us.’”

Craig said the first game he ever called “probably would have been a junior high game in the Weatherford area.”

Little did he know it was the start of a four-decade run.

“It was some extra cash in my pocket and it just kind of went from there,” he said.

After earning his degree in physical education with an industrial arts minor, Craig also began his real career.

“Well, I got my degree in that and ended up a banker,” he said.

That career took him first to Woodward for more than three years before a seven-and-a-half year stint in Follett, Texas.

Despite living across the border, Craig continued to call games in Oklahoma.

He remembers his first playoff game, which was in Balko. He recalls calling in some wild settings.

He recalls getting better.

Still, Craig said, he wasn’t so sure he’d end up receiving the call to go to state.

“Nah, it won’t happen,” he said, “because I’m living in Texas.”

But it did. In 1993 Craig called his first state tournament game.

It was the next year he and his family moved to Okarche.

That move as well as attending an officiating camp in Stillwater, he said, played big factors in continuing to earn a spot back in the state tournament.

“Back when I first started calling, there were just two of us each night and you were with the same guy a majority of the time,” Craig said. “Realistically, you end up getting stuck in a rut.”

While attending the camp, Craig said he met officials like Leyland Searcy and Dave Diesselhorst. The latter now lives in Kingfisher and was a part of the 2014 class of the OOA Hall of Fame.

“I realized really quick that, for me, calling with five or six different guys through the year was better,” Craig said. “Meeting guys like that and the move from Texas back to here put me in the situation of calling with multiple people.

“That right there probably helped me as much as anything going into state to be able to adjust to someone I’d never been on the floor with.”

Craig notes historic games he’s called at state, such as the first 5-on-5 girls game.

He remembers blowouts and buzzer-beaters and championships that came down to one final call.

“I had one where it all came at me at the end,” he said of a championship game between the Pawnee and Talihina boys.

“I had a foul and called it. A kid (from Pawnee) hit the free throws to win it. Half the arena liked it and half of it didn’t.”

Despite sometimes raising the ire of fans and even players, Craig said he’s got nothing but fond memories looking back on his career.

“The biggest memories I have are the kids and the affiliations with the other officials,” he said. “I judge rodeos and do different things, but officiating created another family for me.”

Watching players grow into adults and eventually calling games for their children was a part of the process.

“I’ve been able to see them grow and not just go from one sport to the next, but one level to the next,” he said.

Unfortunately, there was also the wear-and-tear of nearly 40 years of running up and down the court.

“I had knee and lower back issues,” he said. “I didn’t like hurting and trying to call a game.”

There was also a certain standard he strived to achieve.

“If I couldn’t put the product I wanted on the floor, then it was time for me to quit. That was what was starting to happen,” Craig said.

“I didn’t want that to continue.”

He knew that time had come four years ago. Craig jogged off the court one final time, which was a state semifinal at State Fair Arena.

“I didn’t want to hang it up,” he said. “But I knew it was time.”

Next Saturday, Craig will gather again with his “other family” and be rewarded for the time he put into the game of basketball.

It all started with a recommendation from triplets.

“It all worked out,” he said. “I’m pretty lucky, to be honest.”