Officials

Marvin Carlson

Year Inducted: 2002

Category: Officials

Schools / Organizations:
IHSA, NCAA, NJCAA
Suburban Officials Association

Biography:

Lombard resident Marvin Carlson is a Wisconsin native who attended high school in Neenah and college at Ripon and Wisconsin-Oshkosh. At all three schools he was an outstanding baseball and football player.

Carlson began his basketball officiating career in Wisconsin, which lasted for four years before he moved to Illinois, where he spent 37 more seasons as an IHSA referee.

He is well-regarded as evidenced by his Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday tournament resume: Elmhurst York (29 years), Chicago Luther North (29), DeKalb (27), Elgin (26), Pontiac (17), St. Charles (17), Hillside Proviso West (15), Skokie Niles West (14), Aurora Waubonsie Valley (11), East Aurora (10), Batavia (10) and Lemont (8).

Carlson worked three IHSA Class AA state tournaments in 1982, 1983 and 1984. Carlson drew 10 supersectional assignments, 27 sectional assignments and 22 regional assignments. He served on the IHSA state tourney sportsmanship committee for three years and officiated the 1987 IBCA Class AA All-Star Game.

Carlson was a member of the Suburban Officials Association for 34 years and served as president for four years and secretary for six years. 

By the time of his induction, Carlson figured that he had officiated nearly 3,000 varsity games as he worked an average of 75 a year before retiring from education in 1995 and 110 a year since. In 30 seasons of college men’s and women’s experience, Carlson worked NCAA Division II and III playoffs six times, NAIA playoffs five times and NJCAA playoffs in 10 years (four years of state finals).