80-year-old basketball official gunning for world record, gets surprised at Saturday game

Local basketball referee Michael Martorana is aiming for the Guinness World Record for oldest active basketball official.

Local basketball referee Michael Martorana is attempting for the Guinness World Record for oldest active basketball official.

Saturday marked his last step in the process to qualify for the record.

But Martorana was in for a big surprise before the contest even began.

Unbeknownst to him, his son Aaron, who is also a referee, surprised him by stepping in to officiate alongside his father.

“I was really emotional because like I said, you don’t know what’s going to happen in a year. And we’ve played together; I coached him when he was playing ball in high school. It’s been a long, long journey for both of us, and this is really, really special,” Michael said.

With the significance of this game for his father, Aaron told CTV News the plan for him to officiate Saturday’s contest with Michael had been in the works for a long time.

• ‘For as long as I can’: Regina basketball official attempting to set world record

The fact that he was able to keep it a surprise and see Michael’s reaction was simply icing on the cake.

“We kind of had it planned for about a month now that I was going to do this last game with him and just to make it that much more special, there were several members of the Regina Community Basketball Association Board that were here. My mom’s here, my sisters are here. Yeah, it was it was really a good thing, I found it really special,” Aaron said.

While the elder Martorana has been officiating basketball games in the Queen City for 30 years now, he has just one year of seniority in that field on his son.

Michael says before he became an official, he loathed them.

So naturally, Aaron followed suit.

“That year he reffed, we butted heads the whole year because I couldn’t believe he was actually reffing. I still considered them the dark side, but he, over the course of the year, convinced me to do it. I started the following year, and I’ve been doing it ever since, and I love it.”

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The father son duo officiated a RCBA playoff game on Saturday and with 59 years of combined experience, the contest was in good hands.

“It’s going to be over officiated at this level,” Michael said.

“Because Aaron refs at the highest level here. I haven’t reffed that high level for a long time, but I do elementary school all during the week. And so sometimes it gets really competitive. And I like it because they’re small gyms, I don’t have to run as much.”

For Michael and his family, it is now a waiting game to see about his world record attempt.

Guinness World Records will need to verify the record, with that process taking approximately 12 weeks.