HIGH SCHOOL:
Jasper High School (1934)

Three-year varsity center for Jasper Wildcats...culminated high school career as captain and leading scorer of a 29-2 state finalist team, the team with the best record in Jasper's storied history...also played 4 yrs of baseball and served as senior class president...earned basketball scholarship to Purdue, but contracted typhoid, derailing college plans... went to work in Jasper and began long career as IHSAA and then NCAA official...34 years as high school referee included 3 assignments to state finals including 1954 tournament when he officiated famous Milan-Muncie Central championship game. Birge also worked as a college official from 1941 through 1970, including nine years in the Big Ten.