Beaver County has produced many fine sports officials who were active in the tri state area, but few have been as versatile as Bill Vinovich. Most local fans above a certain age remember him well as a football, basketball, and baseball official, but few know that he was a licensed Amateur Athletic Union boxing judge for several years, an activity that was a result of participation in the ring as an amateur boxer in his youth. Butch was a familiar figure as a basketball official of both high school and college games for the 44 years from 1936 to 1980 and as a football official for 40 years from 1941 to 1981. For many years he was both football and basketball rules interpreter for the Beaver Valley’s Officials Groups. His career as a baseball umpire spanned 17 years from 1937 to 1954. Butch began his sports career at Midland High School, where he participated in football, basketball, baseball, and track and field. He was a boxer in the early 1930s, but it was easier to get him to talk about his younger son, Bill Jr, who was a basketball official in the Big Sky Conference in California (the younger Vinovich also officiated basketball in the PAC 10 until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 50). Butch worked at Crucible Steel Company in Midland for 45 years until his retirement in 1979 and was active in Midland municipal government, serving as tax collector from 1954 to 1958 and as a member of borough council from 1958 to 1986. He was council president for his last 24 years of service there.

William's son Billy Jr. and grandson Bill III have also been inducted into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame.