Seven athletes, coaches and contributors will be inducted and Michele Timms immortalised as a legend when the 2016 Australian Basketball Hall of Fame is held on Friday, November 25 in Melbourne.
Purchase your tickets for one of Australian basketball’s most prestigious nights here.
Playing 285 games in the WNBL, Timms won five Championships (1986-89, 1992) and was named in the All-WNBL team seven times (1988-92, 94, 96) during her playing days with Bulleen, Nunawading, Perth and Sydney.
A trailblazer on the international scene, Timms became the first Australian basketballer to play overseas as a professional when she signed with German club Lotus Muchen in 1989.
She represented Australia in 264 international games, competing in four World Championships (1986, 90, 94, 98) and at three Olympics where she won a bronze medal in 1996 and a silver medal in 2000.
Perry ‘Rocky’ Crosswhite, Jeanie Kupsch, Liesl Tesch and Jenny Whittle are the four athletes who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Between them, they represented Australia at five Olympic and five Paralympic Games, winning three silver and two bronze medals combined.
A star of the WNBL, Whittle won two Championships and a league MVP before being awarded Life Membership in 2006.
Crosswhite was a pioneer in the establishment of professional sports administration in Australia, helping to establish a national league with paid players in the 1980’s.
In his playing career, he was a three-time Olympian after a stint with the Melbourne Tigers, captaining the national team in 1972, 1976 and 1980 as well as at the 1974 World Championships, finishing with over 300 national games.
Kupsch and Tesch are trailblazers of the women’s game with Kupsch notable as one of the first great exponents of the jump shot while Tesch became the first Australian woman to play professional wheelchair basketball in Europe in the early 2000’s.
Contributors Ron Harvey and the late Ken Watson will be inducted alongside those four players.
Playing, coaching and administrating basketball for over 50 years, Harvey has enjoyed roles as the NBL Chairman, Director of the Australian Institute of Sport and as President of Basketball Australia before becoming the first Australian to be awarded the International Olympic Committee’s Pierre de Coubertin medal in recognition of his contribution to the promotion of the Olympic spirit.
The founder of the Melbourne Tigers, Watson was also the first coach of Australia’s national men’s basketball team at an Olympics. His work at junior level led to the introduction of the Melbourne Junior Classic, the Australian Club Championships and alongside his wife, Betty, helped bring women into basketball with a number of female participation initiatives.
The only coach to be inducted in the 2016 class, Patrick Hunt represented Australia over 300 times at World Junior Championships and World University Games as well as an assistant coach of the Boomers from 1989-1992.
Hunt was the manager of national player and coach development for Basketball Australia and head coach of the national intensive training centre program at the AIS from 1993-2008 while conducting clinics around the FIBA Oceania region before being named President of the FIBA World Association of Basketball Coaches (WABC) in 2010.
The 2016 Basketball Australia Hall of Fame Class
ATHLETES
Perry Crosswhite AM
Jeanie Kupsch
Liesl Tesch AM
Jenny Whittle
COACH
Patrick Hunt AM
CONTRIBUTORS
Ron Harvey CVO AM
Ken Watson BEM
LEGEND
Michele Timms
Media contact:
Lisa Hasker
Basketball Australia
0418 194 933
lisa.hasker@basketball.net.au
More information on the Hall of Fame can be found here and tickets can be purchased here.
In the spirit of reconciliation Basketball Australia acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.