By Victoria Mejicanos, Feb. 14, 2023
Cal Poly Pomona alumna and former pro basketball referee Violet Palmer was inducted to the 2023 California Collegiate Athletic Association Hall of Fame and received her award on campus on Feb. 11.
During Palmer’s collegiate basketball career, she led the Broncos to back-to-back national championships as well as three regional titles and four CCAA regular season championships.
Beyond her time as a Bronco, Palmer made history as the first female official of the NBA in 1997.
Palmer initially was shocked that she had been inducted and assumed it was a mistake since she was inducted into the Cal Poly Pomona Athletic Hall of Fame just a year earlier.
When she was sent a text message informing her of the honor, she shared that it was such a pleasant surprise due to the conference’s importance to her past and her present.
“I’ve had a phenomenal career, but you don’t do things in your career for awards,” Palmer said. “You do things because you have the passion for them, because you have the drive, because you enjoy them.”
She shared her pride for CPP and explained that she instantly felt a connection to the school from the moment her coach, Darlene May, introduced herself.
“Something about her body language, her aura, I was just so captivated,” Palmer said. “That was really my first introduction to Coach May and Cal Poly Pomona As soon as I got a letter from Cal Poly Pomona, I can honestly tell you it was almost like a done deal.”
Palmer explained that the campus was a perfect fit for her and that aside from appreciating May, the campus and all its attributes such as the Arabian horses and greenery made the campus feel like home.
Although Palmer couldn’t pinpoint a favorite moment on her way to securing a championship, she stated that the highlights of her career were the 1985 and 1986 national championship games.
“Getting to that level, winning championships, is what every student-athlete just strived to get to,” Palmer said. “So having that opportunity to play on that level has always been dear to my heart and just a huge part of my life.”
She explained that CPP and the pride for the campus allowed her to have a winner’s mentality from the time she was an athlete to her career today.
“I think one thing I’ve always got from Cal Poly Pomona, being a Bronco and playing on our women’s basketball team, is that we were winners,” Palmer said. “I have taken that throughout my life, and it is embedded in me. And I think everything that I set out to do I set out to give it 150% and I want to be a winner.”
After graduating, Palmer became a local scorekeeper, where she first discovered her natural talent for officiating and decided to join her local high school association.
“After I joined, it was over,” Palmer said. “I knew. I loved the shirt; I loved the brotherhood that I just had I loved learning the rules. I loved that referees control the game. They’re the keepers of the game, they’re the guardians of the game, they’re the integrity of the game, and all those things just excited me.”
With a career spanning decades, Palmer explained that she has done everything imaginable in her field of work.
No matter the level of referring, from local leagues to the NBA, Palmer has truly seen it all and made her mark.
Although she retired from officiating in 2016, her career in basketball is far from over which is why the award is so important to her.
Since retirement, she has begun work as the women’s basketball Coordinator of Officials for multiple colligate conferences such as Pac-12 and WAC, allowing a new mentorship role to share her experiences with others.
“I get the biggest joy from just teaching and training and mentoring and just watching young referees develop,” Palmer said. “It’s a joy for me, and it’s something that I still have the same passion for. I still have the same desires to be the best and at this point I want to make my referees the best they can be and get to the highest level they can get to and I’m happy to be a part of that.”
Overall, her involvement in collegiate basketball and her interaction with campus is something she feels will never truly end. She continues to contribute to the women’s basketball team by attending games and donating to the sport.
“I’m always visiting the campus, and it’s just a part of my life and will probably forever be, and I love it,” Palmer said.
She continued to say that sharing experiences with other athletes is what collegiate sports is about, something else she enjoys about working with students.
“I think being an example for young student-athletes, myself, if I can do that, I’m so excited and so happy to do it, because if you could look at my career and take something from it to motivate you, then I’m doing something right,” Palmer said.
As she continued to reflect on her career, she spoke on her transition from the WNBA to the NBA and what it taught her. Despite the difference in gender for the athletes, Palmer explained the only difference for her was being the first female referee for the male counterpart of professional American basketball.
Though scrutiny came from all angles, Palmer ignored such criticisms to be a trailblazer for women who aspired to do the same. She went on to describe the negativity as background noise to her.
“Anytime there’s change, you’re always going to have some backlash,” Palmer stated. “I never held it, never internalized it. I kind of just understood that it goes with the territory.”
As someone who was the referee for the inaugural WNBA game, Palmer reflected on the success of women’s sports and its growing fanbase.
“Just to see where women’s basketball or women’s sports have grown, it’s about darn time,” Palmer stated. “We deserve it. We have some of the most incredible athletes — no different than the men — and they should be highlighted … It’s an incredible time to be a woman in sports.”
Not taking things personally is something she said she’s sure she teaches her referees to practice today, drawing from her own experiences. She explained that all she wants them to do is focus on the game, acknowledge their mistakes and learn from them.
“They don’t know Violet the person, they just know I have the ref shirt on,” she said. “Don’t keep making the same mistake, make a different one, because then you’ve learned from what you’ve done.”
Acknowledging mistakes is something she believes sports can teach people, and something they can apply to life. She sees failure as an opportunity to learn and become a winner.
“One thing that sports gives us just overall is that you’re not perfect, that you have to have stumbling blocks, because stumbling blocks make us stronger,” Palmer stated. “They make us work harder.”
Palmer concluded, “You have to have that feeling of sadness and defeat, anxiety and nervousness, all those things groom you to be who you are, and it helps you throughout life. When the sport is over you still got to go through life.”
Feature image courtesy of Violet Palmer
