Sandy Blythe OAM PLY
Hall of Fame Class: 2010 Role: Player
Robert Alexander "Sandy" Blythe, OAM (24 February 1962 – 18 November 2005) was an Australian wheelchair basketball player. He became a paraplegic due to a car accident in 1981, and went on to participate in the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at four Paralympic Games, captaining the gold medal-winning team at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics.
He was part of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at the 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta, and 2000 Sydney Paralympics. He was the captain of the team when it won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games and was co-captain with Priya Cooper of the Australian Paralympic team at the 2000 Sydney Games. He had an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship in 1998 for wheelchair basketball.
Blythe received a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1997 for his 1996 gold medal. In 2000, he received an Australian Sports Medal. In 2010, he was posthumously inducted into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame.
If he were to be remembered for nothing else, Sandy Blythe’s role as captain of the Rollers during their historic run to the gold medal at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta would guarantee his place in Australia’s basketball history. But he will be remembered for a great deal more than that.
Sandy had his sights set on a career in the VFL when a car accident left him paralysed. Against all the odds, Sandy decided that he would draw on his competitive drive to conquer the challenges of both life and sport. By 1988, Sandy Blythe had been selected to represent his country at the Paralympics in Seoul, where the Rollers would finish in 10th position. Twelve years later, in the year 2000, Blythe would be named co-captain of the Australian Paralympic team for the Sydney Paralympic Games that finished fifth. A noted corporate speaker and businessman, Sandy Blythe’s tragically early death in November 2005 robbed our sport of one of its finest ambassadors.
As a player and as a person Sandy Blythe was truly world-class. Few people have been more deserving of enshrinement into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame.
