Officials

Dick Deitz

Year Inducted: 1998

Category: Officials

Schools / Organizations:

IHSA

Biography:

People would address Dick Deitz as “your honor”  with good reason.  It might be difficult to imagine people voting for a basketball official, but if you had been around the Wayne City Holiday tournament at any time from 1968-1998, you wouldn’t be surprised to find that Dick had been voted by the coaches there to work the championship game each year.  It also happened that Dick served the city of McLeansboro as its mayor for 28 years.

Dick was a familiar figure throughout southern Illinois.  He officiated basketball, football, and baseball for 41 years.  He served the IHSA as a rules interpreter for basketball and baseball beginning in 1978.

He refereed 33 consecutive IHSA Regionals, 29 consecutive IHSA Sectionals, and 10 IHSA Super-sectionals.  In 1972, ’73, and ’74 Dick worked the IHSA Class AA state tournaments.  In 1974, he worked the title game in which (Maywood) Proviso East defeated (Chicago Heights) Bloom 61-58.  He returned to the title game in 1996 in Peoria when (Peoria) Manual three-peated for the title.

Dick Deitz died on February 2, 2026 at the age of 86.