Basketball On The Internet.

REGULAR visitors to my website here would have noticed the popular work of our erstwhile US correspondent BOB CRAVEN has been missing for a while now. Truth is Bob has experienced a significant change in his personal life and has been forced to hang up the keyboard, much to my and I am sure the dismay of the many who read him here.

Based in Seattle, Bob - who played in Australia in the 60s as one of the first ever imports - found my website back in its infancy, took the time to write and we quickly established a firm friendship.

I am pretty sure he was startled, then chuffed when I first asked him to come aboard as a contributor, but so many of the tidbits he sent me made for such fascinating reading, I was sure his views on basketball would appeal to a broader audience.

I am thrilled to say I was correct in that assessment as Bob has built his own cult following and his historical anniversaries, in particular, have caught many an eye.

Across the years, there have been more than a few occasions when my circumstances have prevented me from providing the coverage people have come to expect, and in every such instance, Bob's Corner ensured our readers had a positive article to fill the void.

I cannot thank him enough for that and bailing me out on many occasions.

Finding his work particularly satisfying because of his understanding and awareness of the sport's history meant he could keep his observations in a proper context. Bob was not given to outlandish statements, always keeping a keen weather eye on context.

I am so sorry to lose him as a regular contributor, but far happier to know I have not lost him as a friend and that we continue to stay in touch.

In the meantime, here is what you didn't know about Bob Craven.

The Incomplete Basketball History of Robert Craven

Bob ‘Craves’ Craven was brought to Canberra by ACT Amateur Basketball Association in March, 1968 out of the University of Oregon with the promise of nothing more than a bed, maybe a job and a good time playing basketball.

His mate Bob ‘Size’ Donnelly arrived shortly after and left at the end of ’69 with Craves departing in the mid 70’s, both to go home and do some real work.

Bob joined the US State Department and spent a life in the Foreign Service, particularly in South America – a focus of US foreign policy where he also continued his engagement in basketball. 

To provide some insight into the early American import environment. Bob was invited to stitch some recollections together some 45 years after the events took place. He did so with the freshness of yesterday.

Recollections - In the beginning

An unusual series of circumstances/coincidences led to me coming to Canberra in March, 1968, to play and otherwise be involved in basketball in the ACT. 

The first was that Max Landy, a PE teacher at Lyneham HS and a basketball enthusiast, travelled to Eugene, Oregon, my home town; sometime in the early-1960’s to get a Ph.D. in physical education at the University of Oregon, something that I was told was not available at that time anywhere in Australia.

Once there, he introduced himself to the University’s head basketball coach and eventually became an unpaid student assistant on the coaching staff.  I was in High School at that time, and in March, 1963, my school won the Oregon State boys championship for the largest schools in the state, having lost only one game (out of 26) all season.  I was named to the All-Tournament team. 

My team had four players about my height (6’6”, or about 200cm) and three others who were only 2-3 inches shorter.  Landy wrote about my team to the basketball people back in Canberra, comparing us and our extreme size to the local situation in Canberra. 

I doubt very much he remembered me specifically, but he would have known in general about me and my team. I grew another inch to 6’7” and was awarded a scholarship to play for my home town university and in December of 1966, Ken Watson took the Victorian state team (mostly members of his Melbourne Church team) and toured the US.

That included a game against the U. of Oregon, where we beat them soundly.  I had a good game and he remembered that.  Lindsay Gaze was 33 at the time and none of us had ever played against anyone who was not our age.  We were debating whether to play him really tough, or take it easy on “the little old guy”.

Then, in March 1967, Rodney Wulff came to play for the U. of Oregon (sight unseen) on a basketball scholarship that had been arranged for him by Max Landy, based on his relationship established earlier with the U. of O. coach.  I had recently taken a geology/archaeology class which included a long unit on Australia and its uniqueness, which had totally fascinated me. 

As a result, I made it a point to get to know Rod pretty well over the course of the coming season and asked him a lot questions about Australia.  He then told me that the ACTABA had asked him “to bring back a big Yank” with him when he was due to return to Australia during spring break of 1968 after the US season had ended—he was to play locally and try out for the Aussie 1968 Olympic team. 

Around Christmas of 1967, he asked me if I wanted to go and play in Australia.  I might have hesitated 5 minutes—I had to call my mother at work and tell her what I’d be doing come March.

After the holidays, I told him “yes” and I became only the second American to be brought to Australia to play basketball.  The first was Jim Kraus who played at Oregon State U., which was the arch-rival school of my U. of Oregon, and I had played against him.  He had been brought over in 1966 to play for Newcastle by its coach, Doc Raschke.

American centre Bill Stuart altready was playing for West Adelaide in SA, but he was in Adelaide on a work assignment and a stadium "walk-in", as opposed to a recruited import.

Rodney contacted Canberra and the Association talked to Ron Harvey, the ACT rep side coach.  He in turned contacted Ken Watson to ask him about his memories from the game I had played against his team on their US tour.  He had positive things to say, so it was on. 

Settling in

We left from Eugene in late-March with the temperature outside being about 0 degrees C for the 24-hour trip to Canberra via San Francisco, Fiji, and Sydney.  On arrival in Sydney at about noon the next day, the temperature was 96 F, or 35.5 C. 

By the time we reached Canberra that afternoon it was 102 F, or 39 C.  We sat around all afternoon at the Wulff family home in O’Connor drinking fruit juice and trying to recover.  We were exhausted from the travel, the heat and the lack of sleep---and we had to play a SE Conference game that night against the Melbourne Demons at the “Y”. 

Fortunately, I found out I was pretty adaptable and I seemed to settle in pretty quickly.  I had to get used to the accents, the slang, the food, the reeeeeally good beer, driving on the “wrong” side of the road, etc.  Not really a big deal, as it turned out. 

Initially (I’m not sure how long it was—at least two or three months), I lived in O’Connor with the Wulff’s.  As rep side coach Ron Harvey was single, I eventually moved in with him and shared his flat in Lyneham for the rest of my time there. 

About six months after I arrived, a friend of mine from the U. of Oregon (also a friend of Wulffy) came to visit and ended up staying, and between us we bought a VW Kombi van that was several years old.  This gave me mobility on my own and led to many interesting and varied adventures up and down Australia’s East Coast.

SE Conference

My introduction to SE Conference was the evening of the day Rod Wulff and I arrived in Canberra. Because of our condition and that fact that Rodney and I hadn’t even practiced with the rest of the team, we lost a close game, which was very disappointing to all concerned. 

Rodney and I hadn’t played or practiced since our season ended about three weeks prior to our trip (final exams and trip preparations) so we were also not really match fit.

I do know that because I was taller than most and could shoot better than most, my play during my time in Canberra improved substantially overall, because I was such a big part of my team’s production. 

In the US during both high school and university, I was fortunate enough to play for teams that had several people my size or (at the university) even taller.  Thus, in the US I could play strictly as a wing, which was my natural position because of my ability to shoot from distance.  

I was essentially one of several cogs in the wheel.  In Australia, I had to be more involved in everything, especially rebounding and interior offense and defense. 

When I first arrived in Australia, the majority of teams played me man-to-man with their tallest player guarding me. They would stand back in the key and wait for me to go to the basket, giving me all kinds of space outside with the ball because they’d rarely seen someone my size who shot from outside. 

So, that’s what I’d do—shoot from outside wide open until the other team changed to a zone or a tighter man-to-man with someone smaller on me.  At that point, if I could, I would take the shorter guy inside and shoot over them.

In two seasons of SE Conference my inclusion added a competitive edge for the ACT (Canberra) team and while the NSW teams proved challenging but beatable the southern teams out of Melbourne, then the epicenter of Australian basketball following the legacy of the 1956 Olympic Games facilities, proved more difficult.

Club Basketball

I was on the ACT team in the SE Conference—that was a given since the Association had brought me over to play for them—but there was a question as to whom I would play for in the local A grade competition.  That was being dominated by Ron Harvey’s Bouncers club, which contained most of the rep side players, so much so that Bouncers split themselves into two teams, the Blue and the Gold, for that competition. 

Some of the more vocal members of other teams made it clear that they thought it would be totally unfair to add me to one of those two teams, since they already dominated the competition, and because it was assumed that I would be assigned to one of the Bouncer teams anyway because their coach, Ron Harvey, was also the rep side coach. 

Playing with a club team was a foreign experience to me at the time as the main competitions in play in the US was school centered.  As a teen, high school teams were the norm for the highest level. Clubs were unofficial and only functioned as summer leagues during the off-season, or were more social competitions for those not playing for a school. 

Same during the university years, except university players were not allowed to play for other than the university until they had finished their university eligibility.

There used to be very active amateur teams for post-university adults that competed in leagues, such as the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union), but those were almost non-existent by the time I came to Canberra in March of 1968. 

They died out almost completely during the 1970’s.

I was finally assigned to play with Dodgers by the ACT Association because a lot of people involved in basketball in Canberra were afraid that I would just be allotted to the Bouncer’s organization, which already dominated the local top level competition. 

This would be a chance to even things up a bit and give the Bouncers some stiffer opposition, I was told.

The Dodgers

The one thing that sticks out the most to me about being a Dodger was just “the guys”—the teammates I played with.  I know I’ll forget a few names, but Bodge Franklin, Pills Williams, Terry Ryan, Size Donnelly, Brian Graham, John ‘Chopper’ Copley, Peter Higgisson, Laurie Hinksman, Dickie Harding, and Geoff Durant coaching—it was all a lot of fun.

We had a lot of great games in local competition over the years I was there, especially against the Bouncer teams, and we won our share of those.  Living with Ron Harvey, who coached the Bouncers, always made both before, but especially after, those games interesting. 

The best club game I ever played in for Dodgers, and maybe one of the best games I played in anywhere at any time, was against Bouncers Blue.

It was the grand final of the main competition that ended in late-1969.  As usual, the referees were out to give me a lot of grief, but this game was that way more than usual.  If I even turned around, a foul was called on me, and I had four of them before halftime. 

So, even though playing reasonably well (I had 14 points at that stage), I had to sit out the rest of the first half.

During halftime, Coach Geoff Durrant decided to pull me out of the middle and play me away from the basket, shooting from outside and not going inside to rebound at all as the referees would surely call me for the fifth foul right away, and then I’d be toast and our job would be much harder.  In the second half, I started to make shots from outside and got very hot. 

By the middle of the second half I was making everything I shot.  Interestingly, so was Bouncers Blue guard Zdenko Horacek.  We must have matched each other shot for shot for 10 minutes. 
I remember afterwards, Mr. Harvey telling me that he had a feeling that whichever of the two of us missed first, that team would lose the game.  He was right. 

We were slightly ahead and “Zed” missed one, finally.  With about a minute and a half left in the game, I finally fouled out and things were still in the balance.

Terry Ryan then took his game to another level and put the team on his back with timely rebounding and shooting, and took us home for the win.  I had scored 34 points in the second half and 48 for the game, and we won 100 - 97.  Zed ended up with 39.  I did very well but it was Terry Ryan who was in large part responsible for pulling it out for us at the end of the game.  An amazingly exciting game.

Nicknames

The Aussie tradition of giving just about everyone nicknames, some of which bore no relation at all to their actual names, took some getting used to.  A couple of them in particular, I had to ask for an explanation of where they came from.  

For instance, what was a “bodge” or “bodgie”?  After I was shown a couple of old photos and given an explanation, it became obvious.  In the US at about that time, we called young guys like that “hoods”, or the diminutive “hoodlets”.  In Bodge Franklin’s case, diminutive did not apply, so Bodge it was. (That's the late 'Bodge,' pictured above with the GOAT, Lauren Jackson.)

Another was “Pills” for Robert Williams, may he rest in peace.  I could think of nothing that didn’t involve drug use that might make that understandable.  Then, that was explained to me and, let’s just say, the picture became clearer (interesting mental image, that).

The Carnivals

I was also introduced at this time to what, to me, were uniquely Australian basketball events—the country carnivals usually played around a long weekend.  I was involved in many of those over my time there with many different teams and permutations of teams. 

I had not previously known that it was possible to play so much basketball and drink so much beer in such a short time—and sometimes, these took place simultaneously.

The most fun thing about playing for Dodgers were the times we travelled to some of the small town basketball carnivals (Cootamundra, Temora, Dubbo, Gundigai) —basically, an excuse to get out of town for a long weekend, play some basketball and drink copious quantities of the ol’ “nut brown”.

Amazing sometimes how well one can play when your head hurts and your eyes don’t quite focus. 

The best of all of these carnivals was in Temora where, legend has it; they still may have arrest warrants out for a couple of Yanks, but especially for the little one-armed guy (Size Donnelly).

I have no recollection at all about the carnival itself (I think we won it, but who knows?).  I remember that we were looking for some place to spend the night and there was only one room available at the pub/hotel in town, and it only had one single bed in it.  At the end of a very liquid evening, Size and I decided that since I was so much taller than he, he would better fit in someone’s car (no idea whose car it was) and I could take the room.

I found out the next morning that, since it was quite warm, Size had slept in the front seat of the car with all the windows all the way open.  At about 5:00 AM that morning, the municipal water truck came by washing down the gutters in the street.  He made a special, extra-long stop by the car Size was in, turned the hose on, and almost drowned him in the car.

Even better (and absolutely true) before that was that after the pubs closed in the early morning hours that night, we were wandering around the town and came across a police patrol car with no one in it, but with the doors open and windows down.  I really did try to convince Size not to do it, but he wasn’t taking “no” for an answer. 

He crawled in the car, picked up the radio unit, keyed the mike, and shouted out, “Car 54, Car 54, where are you?”

The dispatcher was flabbergasted and wanted to know who this was and what the hell he thought he was doing.  Size’s response was, “Car 54, where the f*** are you” in a demanding sort of way. 

The dispatcher sounded like he was having a stroke at that point, but I did manage to convince Size that we needed to make ourselves scarce and quickly. 

We did notice them patrolling for us quite a bit from then on—at least until I finally went to the pub to sack out, and Size climbed into that car that was his bed to wait for his 5:00 AM wake-up shower.

C’mon, with that Yank accent, who could they have been looking for?

Dick Harding recalls:

I was one of the Dodgers team that Craves mention that won the Murray Valley A Reserve Championship  at Christmas time 1968.  Craven, Bob Donnelly and I went but I can't remember who else played in the team except we had a local Aboriginal boy join us to fill out the numbers.

I thought the Barometer trophy was a lot smarter than the usual plastic statue type ones.
I was also in the 1969 team that Bob mentions that beat Bouncers to win the local A grade comp in 1969.

I can’t remember a Dodgers game that I played in that didn’t have Dick Harding there also.  He is right that he was with us on the team that won that Murray Valley A Reserve carnival.

Because it was Xmas we couldn’t put a full team together, so we had declined to go.  But with snow on the ground and a biting wind blowing on the morning of Xmas Eve, we decided to try to go if they would help us out, so I called them. 

They had wanted us to play in the A Grade, but I told them that we only had 4 guys still and if they’d give us 3 other bodies and put us in A Reserve, we’d do it (we had already agreed to go if they would do both of those). 

Anyway, Size, Dick, I and one other Dodger went down there.  For the life of me, I can’t remember who the 4th Dodger was – maybe Geoff Durrant. 

They gave us 3 extra local bodies, two of whom I don’t remember at all, but Dick is right about the 3rd.  They gave us an Aboriginal guy whose name, I think, was Mick (don’t hold me to that.)  Those 3 guys together were just good enough that the rest of us, except for me (they were not big guys), could take an occasional blow.  They were good enough and we won it.

Afterwards, of course, we went to a local pub for several beers.  At one point, one of the local guys came up to our table and sat next to me and Size (I don’t know if Dick or anyone else heard the conversation).  He said he was very surprised that we brought Mick with us and were buying him beers.  When asked why that should be a big deal, he just said something like “we just don’t let them in here as they can’t hold their beer”, or something like that. 

Size and I were stunned by that and we told the guy so.  We went out of our way after that to buy Mick more and make sure he was included in all the conversation, and we thanked him profusely for helping us out.  Could not believe that, but, then, we were just dumb Yanks.

Back Home 

After I returned to the US, I lived for a while in the San Francisco area and played in some local competitions.  I was asked to try out for the local NBA team at its rookie camp (for first-time players).  Unfortunately, three days before the camp started, I was working out with one of their second-year players and landed on the side of his foot getting a rebound.  I was on crutches for three weeks, the camp was over by that time, and I just decided to get on with life.

I enjoyed myself immensely while in Canberra, saw much of the eastern part of the country, played a lot of great basketball, made a lot of good friends, and generally grew up a lot.  I had been asked to stay permanently and naturalize myself so that I would be eligible for the Olympic team, but I decided I needed to go back to Oregon. 

About a year prior to going to Australia, my father passed away, and eventually my mother and brothers had been asking more frequently that I return (I am the oldest of three brothers). 

Eventually, and not without regret, I decided I needed to do that, and so, in the southern autumn of 1970, I heeded the call of family and returned to the US.

All in all, it was a wonderful time for me and I could not have asked for a better experience or to have met better people.  I thought long and hard about settling in permanently in Canberra (I had also received offers to move to Sydney and Adelaide, among other places), but my family situation back in the US finally made me decide to return, however reluctantly.

Following my Canberra experience and while serving with the US State Department I also played for two or three years each in Peru, New Zealand, and Chile, winning two national championships in Peru and tournaments in Chile. 

While playing with my national champion club team in Peru that we went to the ’74 South American Club Championships and finished second to Brazil in the South American Club Championships in 1974 played in Uruguay.

Some Personal Highlights

There was any number of highlights for me while I was in Australia, but a few were:
Leading the SE Conference in scoring.
Winning the 1969 A Grade championship in Canberra with the Dodgers in a fantastic grand final against Bouncers Blue 100-97, where I scored 48 points, 34 in the second half before fouling out just before the end.
Playing for a “Best of the Rest” team in Sydney in August 1968 against the Olympic Team prior to their departure the next day for Mexico City.  Our team was made up of players who tried out for the Olympic team but had not made the final cut, plus myself and the above-mentioned Jim Kraus, who was at the end of his time in Newcastle and on his way back to the US. 

The Aussies on our team played ferociously, trying to prove they should have made the team, and Kraus and I took advantage of his inside play and my outside shooting (I think both of us scored 20 points in the game) and we beat them soundly.

Winning a Christmas Carnival in Swan Hill, Victoria, with three other players from the Dodgers team, a couple of other “ringers” who could get away on very short notice, and one local player.  They desperately wanted us to come and play but we initially weren’t too interested in going all that way at Christmas, but we woke up the morning of December 24 to find snow on the ground (!!!) and our breath frozen. It was warmer down that way, so we called them and they welcomed us with open arms.
Scoring 52 points in a Dodgers A-Grade game against the “Y” (I think).
Throwing down some slam dunks in several games (very uncommon back in those days), particularly in one SE Conference game in Canberra against the Sydney “Y”.  Also, dunking during warm-ups and games at some of those country carnivals, where they’d never seen dunks before.  The little kids loved it—some of the players on the other teams, not so much.

Running from the foul line to the left corner in an overtime SE Conference game in Canberra against Illawarra with almost no time left and blocking a wide open shot by Orme Brettell, thus winning the game by one point.

As you might expect, I’ve got a million stories and this Aussie experience is one of them!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Going to miss you Bob but cannot thank you enough for your contribution to my website. The cheque is in the mail!