Basketball WA

Wednesday 3 April 1946 was an important day for basketball in Western Australia. It was when the original ‘Western Australian Basketball Association’ was formed by a small group of basketball enthusiasts at the Perth YMCA on Murray Street. The sport had already been played across the state for 35 years however there had been no official management or promotion of the sport. The newly formed Western Australian Basketball Association went on to achieve many great things for basketball and eventually saw the sport move into its own Perry Lakes Stadium in September 1962. This year, 2009 will mark another important chapter in the history of basketball as it moves into its second home; the new Western Australian Basketball Centre. Mr John Leonard, a highly respected Perth businessman, athlete and two-time winner of football’s coveted Sandover medal, played a key role orchestrating that first meeting on Wednesday 3 April 1946. The initial aim of the inaugural meetings was to form a body that would ‘henceforth manage, control and promote the development of basketball in Western Australia’. Their motivation was a ‘deep seated belief in the future of a sport that had captured their interest over many years and in many varying circumstances’. In the minutes of the original meeting was unanimously agreed there was a need for the formation of a body to organise, control and promote,on a state-wide basis, the activities of the burgeoning sport of basketball. There were three resolutions made that evening. Namely; A Basketball Association be formed and named Western Australian Basketball Association. International basketball rules be adopted for the Western Australian Basketball Association. The final resolution demonstrated the enthusiasm of the Association to get underway with running competitions; It now has 63 affiliated associations across all 10 regions in western australia...with over 40,000 members