Roger was a king during SA's greatest era
RETIRING from fulltime writing in 2017, I penned a career retrospective and arrived at the conclusion Werner Linde nudged Brett Maher as the greatest South Australian basketballer I was lucky enough to chronicle. That said, if Werner was our 60s-70s superstar a la Michael Jordan, then Roger King was that era's Scottie Pippen.
RIP Southern pioneer Jeff Carey
ONE of the founding fathers of the Southern Tigers Basketball Association - previously Noarlunga City Tigers, Glenelg Tigers, Centrals and CY - and a leader of the sport in South Australia, Jeff Carey, died last Thursday, aged 83. A renowned coach and administrator, Jeff was a life member of both NCT and BASA.
Lorraine Eiler Medal honours our original G.O.A.T.
SHE was the first Australian - male or female - to win a US college sports scholarship and instrumental in initiating basketball for women in the 1950s. And that is barely the tip of the iceberg of what the late great Basketball SA Hall of Fame Legend Lorraine Eiler achieved in an outstanding and unrivalled sporting career, her name now forever enshrined in our folklore.
Last link to our first Games team dies at 94
COLIN Burdett, the last remaining player who suited for Australia at its 1956 international debut as host nation for the Melbourne Olympic Games, has died, aged 94, closing the book on our link to that first team of part-timers who launched the Boomers tradition 69 years ago.
Golden Girls seeking 'new' faces
FEELING like you could use a little jog up and down the basketball court like the good old days? Then Ladies, if you live in Adelaide, this is for you. Every Tuesday from 10-11am at centrally-located Wayville Sports Centre, you can relive the glory days ... provided you are between 55 and 80 and keen to have a little movement back in your life.
Final door closes on SA legend at 91
ALAN Dawe, a pioneer and dual-Woollacott Medallist who bestowed the magnificent nickname of "Bearcats" on SA basketball's most successful senior club, West Adelaide, died yesterday, aged 91 and leaving behind an unmatched legacy of commitment to the sport we all love and cherish so much.
Vale the trailblazers Longley and Hughes
THE deaths within a few days of each other last month of Rick Longley and Alan Hughes served again as a potent reminder of our own mortality, especially when basketball players who rightly were legends of their own eras so suddenly leave us.
Two-state chances to farewell The Iceman
FOR the many who have requested further information regarding the funeral of Darryl Pearce, there will be a service in North Melbourne on Friday and a memorial service in Adelaide on Tuesday honouring the life and legacy of the basketballer known Australia-wide as The Iceman, taken far too soon at 64.
Vale Darryl Pearce - The Iceman Leaveth
THE death on Sunday of 1988 Boomers Olympian, dual-NBL champion and Basketball Australia Hall of Famer Darryl "Iceman" Pearce at 64 was a shock, to say the least. It served as a timely reminder to reach out to those who matter to you and let them know what they mean to you, while you can.
Mr Grumpy bids his final farewell
THEY say the two certainties in life are death and taxes but in the case of Ian Thornton, there were a few more. "Did you hear the one about the Irishman, the Englishman and the Scotsman who walk into a bar?" That was the other certainty. Ian always had a joke up his sleeve.