Roy Gardner was a basketball official who was a math teacher for 34 years at Batesville High School. He coached basketball at Westland, Rising Sun and Batesville as well as track, baseball and golf at Batesville, with his teams capturing numerous championships. As an official, Gardner worked the 1955, 1956 and 1959 State Finals. He also officiated in the Big Ten from 1959 through 1969, and he called the East-West College All-Star Games in Hinkle Fieldhouse in 1968 and 1969. Gardner was born in 1919 in Lawrenceburg, lettered in basketball and track at Ball State University and passed away in 1977. He was inducted into the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Ripley County Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. The IBCA has presented an award to an outstanding basketball official in Roy Gardner’s name since 1978.
2025 IBCA Roy Gardner Award
Congratulations to the Roy Gardner Award Winner: Bill Brinkman
Bill Brinkman of Lawrenceburg is the winner of the 2025 IBCA Roy Gardner Award.
Brinkman started officiating in 1990 while a student at Franklin College. In the ensuing years, he has called 30 sectionals, 20 regionals, nine semi-states and five State Finals in boys’ basketball. His title games were in 2006 (4A), 2010 (2A), 2014 (3A), 2019 (4A) and 2024 (4A). He also has called games in three Hall of Fame Classic tournaments.
Brinkman is in his 35th year as a member of the Mid Hoosier Officials Association. He has served the association as president, vice president, certification clinician and mentor.
A 1987 graduate of Lawrenceburg High School, Brinkman competed in basketball, football, golf and track & field. He was a member of the 1985 Class 2A state runner-up team in football. Brinkman matriculated to Franklin College, where he competed four years each in football and track & field while earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1991. In 2008, he earned a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Cincinnati.
He now is in his 34th year as an educator, 18 years as a math teacher – including six years at Center Grove, four years at Lawrenceburg and eight years in Ohio – and now in his 16th year as a school administrator. He currently is an Associate Principal at Lakota East High School in Liberty Township, Ohio.
Brinkman and his wife, Michelle, reside in Lebanon, Ohio. He is father to London, 23, and Beck, 21, and step-father to Logan, 18, and Camryn, 15.
When not at school or officiating, he enjoys time with family, attending sporting events and concerts, and follows the Cincinnati Bengals and Purdue Boilermakers.
