RING ENCORE : Ex-Boxer Scott Makes Debut as Referee at Country Club

The arena was small and the smoke filtered the already dim lights. The milling crowd loaded up on food and drink, preparing for another night of club boxing.

A tall, strapping man stood near the ring. He was a bit nervous, and with reason. In a few minutes, Bill Scott would step into the ring for the first time--the first time, that is, without gloves.

On this night at the Country Club in Reseda, Scott, a former professional boxer, is making his debut as a pro boxing referee and judge. At 48 years old and more than 15 years removed from his last venture into the ring, Scott is starting over.

But unlike another resurgent boxing figure from the same era, heavyweight George Foreman, Scott will take care of his ring business wearing a bow tie and black slacks. To boxing, he is a veteran of the ring. To the California State Athletic Commission, he is a rookie.

His is not a case of a former athlete looking for work in the sport that once was his playground. Scott is a successful businessman and has held a real estate license for nearly 20 years.

His resume includes work as a bank loan officer, for which he has earned an entire wall’s worth of awards. He also owns an upscale Beverly Hills limousine service. His wife Barbara runs a real estate investment firm; his two children are grown, out of the house and on the road to their own successes. Boxing, it would seem, could fit comfortably into Scott’s distant past.

But that’s exactly why he yearns to be a staple in the fight game today--because he doesn’t need boxing, because he wants to work for the betterment of the sport. Conversely, the sport doesn’t need Scott, but it surely will love to have him.

“I’m in it now to give something back,” he said. “Boxing has done so much for me, not in the way of fame or glory but as a person. I really love boxing.”

His adoration of the sport drives him to put in countless hours refereeing sparring bouts in several Los Angeles gyms. The athletic commission requires an aspiring referee to work 100 gym fights as part of the training to become licensed.

For more than two years, Scott has been diligently putting in his bout work. He passed the century mark long ago but has no plans to stop working the ring scrimmages just because the commission is satisfied. Scott, a stickler for improvement, isn’t satisfied.

For 30 years, Scott has been skirting the perimeter of the sport, searching, checking to see if he can improve it and his presence in it. The fascination with leather-wrapped fists never needed to be beaten into him. Maybe because a small beating provided the orientation.

“The first time boxing crossed my mind was when I fought my brother,” said Scott, who was 12 at the time. “A friend across the street got two sets of boxing gloves for Christmas. My brother Abraham, who was 1 1/2 years older, and I put them on and we went at it. It was a pretty good little old fight. We really nailed each other, but we didn’t call it win or lose.”

Scott boxed in the Army before launching a series of successful business ventures. But the call of boxing continued to ring in his ears, and he started training again. He won Northeastern Ohio Golden Gloves championships in 1963-64 and ’68 and was bestowed with the Golden Gloves Sportsman Award in ’63.

“I was into boxing,” he said, “totally for the sport of it. I never wanted to hurt anyone or to make a lot of money off of it.”

Scott, who fought as Victor (Dynamite) Scott--Victor is his middle name--admits his pro career (4-6 record) never became overly successful, probably because he didn’t pursue it seriously until he was 30, dinosaur age in boxer years.

There was a bout with an up-and-coming Foreman in El Paso, Tex., in 1971. Foreman’s scheduled opponent had car trouble in the middle of the New Mexico desert, so Scott was flown in from Los Angeles on less than an hour’s notice as a replacement. A warmed up and angry Foreman knocked out Scott, who had been rushed from the airport in a police car with siren blaring, in the first round.

When Foreman recently came out of retirement, Scott wrote him a letter, asking for a rematch. He later laughed off the request, content, he said, with his earlier exploits as a fighter.

But as a referee and judge, Scott can devote time, energy and counsel to the sport. And unlike fighting, age and experience can become a closer ally as time marches on.

On July 25, his first night as an official referee, Scott beamed upon hearing the words that christened his pursuit: “Now presenting the officials, as they are appointed by the California State Athletic Commission . . . “ boomed the ring announcer. Scott was one of the four-man judging-refereeing crew, and its only rookie.

He refereed the opening bout and was a ringside judge for the remaining four fights. Controversial ring moves by the referees drew boos during nearly all of the fights--except Scott’s bout, which featured two compact 120-pound fighters jabbing and dancing about the ring, rarely clinching.

Scott uttered only one phrase, “Let him go,” during the first round, and his only separation of the combatants came 10 seconds before the end of the fight. Though his hand was raised many times in victory as a fighter, Scott had never performed the task as a referee. After the decision was announced, he hesitated for a moment before walking over and grasping the winning fighter’s hand to hold high in the air. The victorious boxer wore a broad smile. A small smile could be seen etched on the referee’s face.

Personal satisfaction is already being reaped by Scott, although the official payoff--becoming licensed by the International Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Council--won’t come until near the end of the year. In the end, Scott just wants to ensure justice for the guys who put in the road work, the training, the sweat and the tears.

Said Scott: “The fighters have to get a fair shake. It’s very important. I regret to say it, but you see some very lopsided judging and refereeing. I wonder if the guys judging were so biased they couldn’t see who really won the fight. I am going to be fair, as a referee and a judge.”

It’s fair to say Bill Scott doesn’t just want to become a part of boxing--that initiation came several years ago. Now he wants to become part of the improvement of boxing, part of the group of purists who will always work to keep intact the integrity of the fight game.