Veteran ref Haines worked for love of game

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For 52 years, Art Haines laced up his shoes knowing that half of the people would like his decisions and half of the people would disagree.

"My calculations tell me that my father was a referee for more than 11,500 games at all levels of basketball and an umpire for more than 7,000 softball games," his son Mark said. "Thousands of people over the years have told me they loved having my dad work their games. He earned that respect because he cared and worked hard at his craft. He was also the training official for hundreds of referees.

"My dad didn't work all of these games for the money. He did it for the love of sports and the games. He loved being a referee and umpire."

Arthur "Yutch" Haines, a resident of Orland Park, passed away earlier this month at the age of 84.

As an athlete and official in the south suburbs, Haines put together a legendary career.

Haines was a star basketball player on a Thornton High School team that had a 24-4 record and perfect 14-0 mark in the South Suburban League.

After serving in the Army in World War II, he averaged a conference-leading 19 points for the Thornton Community College basketball team in 1947, in addition to playing on the golf team and serving as class president.

Haines went on to star in basketball and golf at the University of Richmond.

A founding member of the South Suburban Officials Association, Haines was named to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2005. He also enjoyed working with area youth leagues.

"Dad was a coach, manager and treasurer in the Dolton-Riverdale Little League," Mark said. "He helped implement the rule that every child would play at least two innings in the field and bat during each game. He wanted kids to learn and play the game. To this day, past players remember Dad as a person who taught sportsmanship and allowed them to play different positions."

Art and Geraldine, his wife of 54 years, had a family of three sons (Mark, John, Dennis) and eight grandchildren.

"Dad was just over 2 pounds at birth and wasn't allowed to play high school sports until his junior year because of a heart murmur," Mark said.

"He was a special man. I can still hear him saying, 'Let's play ball!' at the beginning of each inning of the softball games he umpired."