Referee Ratings

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Originally Posted by Cap

A while back I compiled a hand-written list of all the refs I planned to use in the game divided by era. That's what I refer to when I'm setting up a fight.

Pilight, how did you decide who was a '5' and who was a '10', etc?

Cap

First I looked at the number of fights they had. I figure people get better at something the more they do it and if the ref wasn't good people would stop hiring him. I also took note of any championship fights they worked as a mark in their favor. Then I looked through their fights to see if they had controversies mentioned where they'd made errors or had decisions overruled by commissions (TKOs into NCs and the like). Then I googled their name to see if anything came up to suggest they were particularly good or bad (most times I came up with nothing at all). Then I picked a number that felt right with that info.

For stoppages and fouls I looked at how many TKOs, NCs, and DQs they had as a percentage of their fights. I also looked for reputations in these categories in my googling. Since the game works on a modern sensibility, where TKOs make up about 1/3 of results and DQs are rare, many pre-war refs rate as strict and/or late.

Note that I did not change any of the refs that came with the game.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

BoxRec
Career: 1924-1937
USA
Residence: California

Did not find McGrath in anyone's list so I just gave him a Judgement of 15 more or less based on the small number of title fights he officiated and though I didn't read the details he got suspended at least one time. Normal on Fouls and Stoppage.

10/21/37 - California Eagle, LA - Ran an article on some fights at the Olympic

Auditorium on 10/19/37 one of which was Lightweight Ernie Carter (ID 071504) vs

Donnie Nicholas in the newspaper article. Says Carter floored Donnie in the first

and earned a 4 round decision win from referee Larry McGrath. BoxRec shows this bout

for Carter against Don Nichols. The referee listing of bouts for McGrath does not

list this bout. Reason mention it here.

Photo is from the 06/20/37 Los Angeles Times. Caption says, Ray Vargas, light-

heavyweight, has just floored Cort Shepherd, St. Louis youngster in a recent bout at

the Olympic Auditorium. Larry McGrath is third man. BoxRec does not list McGrath as

referee for this fight which shows under Vargas' record (ID 012406) the fight taking

place 06/15/37 at the Olympic his opponent listed as Courtland Sheppard, who is from

St. Louis in BoxRec's data.BoxRec's list of fights for McGrath shows the Jackie

Wilson/Pete DeGrasse fight which took place as the headline on the card

Vargas/Sheppard fought on.There was a written account of this fight card in the

6/16/37 edition of the LA Times.

Scanning through newspaper articles, found some to point the fact that McGrath

dabbled in show business some, probably playing a boxing/referee type. There was a

show called "The Milky Way" out in early 1936 that starred Harold Lloyd. Larry

McGrath was listed in the show as a referee.

09/17/25 - The Los Angeles Times - Account of fight between Ace Hudkins and Mushy

Callahan which was fought to a draw. Larry McGrath was the referee and one of

Mushy's seconds objected to the decision rendered. He climbed into the ring after

the fight was over and attempted to assault McGrath, but McGrath swung a left to the

chin of Mushy's second. Specators and officials separated the two before more fists

were thrown. Intersting crossing of paths of McGrath and Callahan.

Title Fights officiated BoxRec:

12/01/31 - California State Lightweight, Bobby Pacho vs Hector McDonald
11/22/32 - World Featherweight(California version), Baby Arizmendi vs Varias
12/22/33 - California State Welterweight, Ceferino Garcia vs Mike Payan
10/16/34 - California State and Pacific Coast Middleweight, Oscar Rankins vs Swede

Berglund
Not many at all. He did officiate 4 Art Lasky bouts.

[bear]

Originally Posted by pilight

First I looked at the number of fights they had. I figure people get better at something the more they do it and if the ref wasn't good people would stop hiring him. I also took note of any championship fights they worked as a mark in their favor. Then I looked through their fights to see if they had controversies mentioned where they'd made errors or had decisions overruled by commissions (TKOs into NCs and the like). Then I googled their name to see if anything came up to suggest they were particularly good or bad (most times I came up with nothing at all). Then I picked a number that felt right with that info.

For stoppages and fouls I looked at how many TKOs, NCs, and DQs they had as a percentage of their fights. I also looked for reputations in these categories in my googling. Since the game works on a modern sensibility, where TKOs make up about 1/3 of results and DQs are rare, many pre-war refs rate as strict and/or late.

Note that I did not change any of the refs that came with the game.

Real great job. Many thanks

[hamed2]

Originally Posted by bear

Real great job. Many thanks

I agree with bear, thanks pilight!

[pilight]

I'd rate McGrath 15, Strict, Late

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Originally Posted by pilight

I'd rate McGrath 15, Strict, Late

[Coiler12]

Great thread and great set of refs that I'll definitely be using.

FWIW, I've deliberately made refs with really bad Judgement ratings, and the must obvious thing I've noticed is how they'd frequently end rounds before the bell actually rang. (Even good refs do this occasionally in-game, but these take it to a different level).

[pilight]

Just hit 1000 refs rated. Enjoy this zip file of them.

Note that this number includes all the refs I posted above and the ones added to the database

[Waltercito]

Originally Posted by pilight

Just hit 1000 refs rated. Enjoy this zip file of them.

Thats incredible. Thank you very much!