Brad Barton joins the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame after a 50-year career as volleyball official and administrator, helping build the sport regionally, nationally and internationally.

The Order of Canada recipient participated in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal as a referee and was denied a chance four years later with the international boycott of the Moscow Games.
His second chance came in 1984 in Los Angeles when he again refereed at the Olympic Games.

Barton moved right into teaching after high school, working in an elementary classroom in North Preston before he had even completed the provincial certification. From there he went to the Nova Scotia Teachers College, where he was part of the first physical education class in 1964.
One of the requirements of the program was to become qualified as an official in three sports. Barton played soccer and volleyball at NSTC and senior basketball for a Truro team.

When he came out of school in 1966, now working as a physical education teacher at a junior high in Bedford, he could referee all three sports.
His volleyball officiating went from local to provincial. Then regional. Next came national and in 1975 he became an international referee in advance of the Montreal Olympics.

He chaired the national officials committee for eight years starting in 1978 and began training officials for international events. That led to him being the assignor, and preparing all the evaluations, for referees at the FISU World University Games in Edmonton in 1983.

He went on to work the test event for the Seoul Olympics in 1985. With Canada not involved, he got to work in matches with many of the world powers, including the United States and Soviet Union. He also worked another World University Games in Buffalo in 1993.

He is still plenty active, evaluating and assigning officials at the university and college level. He referees, too, at the high school and college level.

Bio courtesy of Monty Mosher