BUTLER TWP — The end of his basketball career was hurtful to Steve Ward.

“I tried walking on the Slippery Rock University team and got cut,” the Cranberry High School graduate and longtime Butler resident recalled. “Then I was one of three guys they called back and I got cut again.

“It was one of the worst days of my life.”

It also started some of the best years of his life.

Ward was a point guard in high school. He wasn't ready to leave sports. To this day, he never has.

“Once I got cut, I wondered what I was going to do next,” he admitted. “Somebody mentioned officiating and I decided to go for it.

“That fall, I took my basketball (officials) test and passed. That was in 1970.”

Ward started out working junior high, junior varsity and recreational league games, “good developmental stuff,” he said.

Then SRU basketball coach Mel Hankinson asked Ward to come back out for the team the following year.

“I told him no, I was sticking with officiating,” Ward said.

Good choice.

Now 68, Ward recently received a certificate and pin from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association commemorating his 50th year of officiating basketball. He's also been a football official for 44 years, a track and field official for 35.

He did NCAA Division II and III basketball for 15 years, NCAA track and field for 20.

“I gave up Div. II basketball after a while because there were times I'd have to drive to West Chester, Millersville, Lock Haven ... I'd drive home on icy roads on I-80 and wouldn't get back until 6 a.m., then have to go to work at 7 a.m.,” Ward said. “I didn't want to keep doing that.”

Ward and his wife, Karen, have been married 48 years. He retired from his administrative position at the Butler V.A. hospital in 2007.

He had one knee replaced in 2009, the other in 2011. Neither has slowed him down.

“I scheduled both of those surgeries right after basketball season,” Ward said. “I never missed much time that way. I didn't have to move much to work track meets and I was good to go by the time football rolled around.”

“He loves sports and he loves to be involved,” Mrs. Ward said of her husband. “Steve has always been active.”

Ward works as many as four football games over a long weekend. He'll do four or five basketball games a week.

He credits a quartet of officials — Bill Beatty, John Jancse, Don Dombart and Jim Senopole — for breaking him into the business.

“Those guys used to work junior varsity (basketball) games with me, helped me with my mechanics,” Ward said. “Guys break in to officiating and think they're ready to work varsity games right away. It takes six or seven years before you're ready to step on the court to work varsity.

“The best officials I've seen through the years, that's how they did it. They took the necessary time to learn the craft.”

Ward has worked football games for decades despite having never played the game himself.

“My high school didn't have a team,” he said. “Having no experience on the field as a player, I was a purist when it came to learning the game. In a way, I think that helped me.”

All three of the Ward's children — Brian (baseball, soccer), Adam (football) and Erin (basketball, soccer, track) — played sports at Butler. That meant some busy years for the family.

“Steve would leave to go work a game and I'd tell him not to come home hungry, I won't be cooking dinner,” his wife said, laughing. “He's been at this for a long time, but I don't mind it at all.

“It's what he loves to do.”

Ward admits he officiates now on a year to year basis.

“As long as my legs hold up, I'll keep doing it,” he said. “I've done four WPIAL finals in basketball, three in football.

“Those are the fun things ... the big arenas, so much at stake ... That's why you do this. That's the atmosphere you want to be in.”