Ted Valentine

Valentine grew up in a high-income, gated community, just outside of Moundsville, West Virginia. He was raised by his mother, who was a worker at a Louis Marx and Company factory, making big wheel tricycles. His mother would put cardboard into her shoes over worn soles to save money.[5] He did not know his father until junior high. In the same year he met his father, he witnessed a friend die from an accidental gunshot wound to the head. Following this, he developed a stutter, for which he saw two speech therapists.[6] He attended John Marshall High School, where he played baseball for three years.[7]

He attended Glenville State College, where he majored in physical education.[8] He played first base for his college team.[8] He graduated in 1980.[5] Though he did not play basketball, he was a manager on his college's basketball team.[9] He was inducted into his college's sports hall of fame in 2006, after lettering in baseball.[10] Following college, he returned to John Marshall High School, becoming a physical education and driver's education teacher, as well as a coach.[7] In 1985, he was an assistant coach for the John Marshall High School baseball team that won the West Virginia Class AAA State Championship.[10]

While Valentine has never played organized basketball, he has coached, if briefly. While in college, he was a student teacher at Weston Junior High in Weston, West Virginia. He was an assistant coach for the school's junior high girls team. The head coach had taken maternity leave, leading to Valentine being the substitute head coach for a game. He received three technicals before half time, and was ejected. On his way off the court, he passed the principal of the school who said "You just coached your last game."[8][6]

Following knee surgery, Valentine moved to Charleston, South Carolina in 2003.[9] In addition to refereeing, Valentine also works part-time for the North Charleston Recreation Department.[5]

While doing janitorial work in a gym on work-study program in college, Valentine had observed basketball referees and decided he wanted to be a college basketball referee.[6][9] He talked with some referees about how to get started in the profession, and took a class. He began refereeing at kids games, later moving up to junior high and high school games.[9] In 1981, he attended a refereeing camp in Bristol, Connecticut run by NBA Hall of Fame member Dallas Shirley. While there, he poured out a cooler of ice water from a window onto sunbathers below the window. Shirley threw Valentine out of the camp for the stunt. A few months later, Shirley offered him a job as a referee.[6]

Valentine worked his first NCAA Division I basketball game in 1981 at the former Baptist College, now Charleston Southern University.[5] He was paid $150 for the game, and received speeding tickets both on the way and returning from the game.[9] In 1986, he was hired by Bob Wortman, who was then the Big Ten Conference's director of officials. Wortman was looking to diversify his staff, and after an interview offered Valentine a job refereeing 30 games.[8] Wortman personally trained Valentine.[6] He quit teaching and became a full-time college referee in 1988.[8][9] Before his first NCAA Championship game, Valentine lost his official pass and nearly did not get into the game.[5]

Valentine refereed his first final four in 1991.[8] He worked 26 consecutive NCAA tournaments until 2015, when he stepped aside from his work to spend time with his brother, who was dying from cancer.[5]

Valentine was to work the 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in Indianapolis but was sent home because of COVID-19 protocols as he either tested positive or was in close contact with a fellow referee who tested positive after arriving in Indianapolis.

Valentine is sometimes referred by the nickname of "TV Teddy" for his sometimes theatrical officiating.[11][12][6][8]

He has one daughter, Joneesha, and a granddaughter.[5]