John Heard OLY
Hall of Fame Class: 2013 Role: Player
John Heard takes his place in Australian Basketball history as the Captain of the first Boomers team to contest an Olympic Games abroad, traveling to the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics, where the Boomers finished in ninth place with nine wins.
A South Australian by birth, Heard moved to the ACT in 1966 due to work commitments, but his involvement with basketball continued unabated. That year Heard captained the Bouncers Basketball Club to the ACT Championship, and Heard was again at the helm of history in 1967 when the Australian Capital Territory became a State Association in its own right.
He captained the Bouncers to another ACT Championship in 1967, and was selected as State Captain of the ACT team for its first appearance in the Australian Championships, where the team finished 5th.
Heard retired from top-level playing in 1973, but continued his involvement with basketball through referee training and education, and in 2000 was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for services to basketball.
