Basketball legend Dr Adrian Hurley set to release labour of love

In a career spanning more than 50 years, ‘‘Doc’’ Hurley wore every hat there was.

A National Basketball League championship-winning coach of Perth Wildcats, the first coach to guide Australia’s Boomers to an Olympic medal round, and first head coach of the Australian Institute of Sport basketball program, he is a life member of Basketball Australia, an Order of Australia Medal recipient and the inaugural inductee into BA’s Hall of Fame.

Yet Hurley’s most significant contribution to the history of the game in this country could be his painstaking effort to document and detail Australia’s participation at every Olympic Games from 1956 in Melbourne to 2000 in Sydney.

The final proofs of Hoop High, a limited edition, two-volume tome that any Australian basketball buff must have, will be available by late next month.

The former Hunter Pirates coach said Mel Dalgleish, one of the 150 Olympians profiled in the book, had assisted with publishing and design through his companies Paragon Printers and Zebra Marketing and Design.

‘‘It’s going to pre-press now, the final edit will be done in the next couple of weeks, and we’re hoping it will be printed in three to four weeks then we’ll start to distribute it from there, so we’re hoping that by late March it will be out there,’’ Hurley said.

‘‘When it comes out at the end of March, there will be some copies still available, but it’s a pre-purchase book, and it will be a signed limited edition.

‘‘We’ll be printing around 600 copies, of which about 500 or so have been pre-sold, so we expect there will be another 50 or 60 left over for the public once the book has been distributed to those who pre-ordered it, and that will be it.’’

More than a labour of love, Hoop High was a project he felt compelled to take on after the idea was first discussed at a Boomers reunion during the Sydney Olympic Games.

‘‘A lot of people have described it as a labour of love, and it is ... but a lot of the driving force behind this was fear and dread,’’ he said. ‘‘I was very fearful that this part of our history would be lost, because records and photos certainly existed but hadn’t been recorded, so that was what drove me on.

‘‘I thought if I don’t do this, it will never be done and it will be lost forever.

‘‘That was probably more the driving force than anything, rather than the passion or love of the sport, and I knew the only source of information would be the players.

‘‘That’s one of the great things about the book – that 90per cent of the photos taken in the book are ones taken by the players.’’

‘‘A lot of official photos were never taken, so those photos were taken by the players, and the descriptions of the games in there were based on the players’ memories.’’

Hurley said FIBA, international basketball’s governing body, and the International Olympic Committee had ordered copies and would use them to update and enhance their own archives.

Including Newcastle representatives John Gardiner, Terry Charlton, Colyn Whitehead, Ian Davies and Tonny Jensen, every player, coach or official to have represented Australia at the Olympics from 1956 to 2000 is profiled.

Hurley’s research involved countless phone calls and emails with past and present players  around Australia and the world.

‘‘Obviously there are a lot of players that live in the United States, Israel, Europe and so on, so contacting a lot of them and getting their files and photographs – just tracking them down – has been pretty interesting,’’ he said.

‘‘The neat thing about the book is it’s not a sterile, dull history. 

‘‘It’s very much not that. It’s a first-hand account from all of the players and coaches and people that were there.’’

 ● Hoop High (A history of Australian Olympic basketball 1956-2000) can be ordered online through BA, affiliated state associations, including Basketball NSW, various metropolitan and regional associations, including Newcastle Basketball, or by contacting Hurley via email at 42.adrian.hurley @gmail.com or adrian@hurleyit.net.