By JARROD POTTER
EVERY week Stud Road is graced with scores of basketball talent – from the smallest of junior point guards to the mighty centres that dominate the SEABL and WNBL.
But basketball had to take the Dandenong community by storm gradually as it rose from a small scale school pursuit to playing in Australia’s peak competitions.
Basketball had been played in Dandenong for about a century with archival papers showing sides playing school championships in 1935 as Dandenong High School lost to MacRobertson Girls High School 8-51.
Dandenong basketball integrated into the public sporting community more seamlessly in 1959 when Dandenong Basketball Association was formed and a few years later… the Rangers – although not yet named as such – were born.
Ron Burgess – who was made a life member of Basketball Victoria in 2007 and awarded an Australian Sports Medal – was there to see the start of Dandenong Rangers’ growth as a club.
He coached the inaugural side in the mid-1960s before handing the reins to champion Harlem Globetrotter Willie Anderson in the South Eastern Conference Series.
“I was the first player-coach of the first Dandenong Rangers side and we weren’t known as Dandenong Rangers then,” Burgess said.
“They became Dandenong Rangers when we joined what was known then as the Pacific Conference.
“We were playing in the lower divisions and that was around 1965-1966 and we had the St Kilda ruckman Brian Mynott in our side.
“Dandenong men were declared Metropolitan in 1965 and we then had to compete in Albert Park in the second division championships.
“Then I coached the side up until about 1969 and then they went into Division 1 – because we were runners up in Division 2 – and the ex-Harlem Globetrotter Willie Anderson took over as coach.”
From the humble roots half-a-century ago, the Rangers have flourished.
Burgess’ men would take the 1966-67 Division 1 title at Basketball Victory Country Championships before switching to the metropolitan competition and the Dandenong women also claimed that championship.
Rangers women were never far behind the men and most would say they have become synonymous with Dandenong basketball after making their biggest step yet in 1992 to join the Women’s National Basketball League and have earned three titles to date – 2004, 2005 and 2012.
Penny Taylor, Emily McInerney, Alison Downie and Larissa Anderson have been some of the greats to grace the WNBL courts and Dandenong continues to put up champions year on year, with a fourth flag never too far away on the horizon.
The Dandenong men caught up with a pair of BIG V championships in 2006 and 2007 and have become a fearsome presence in the SEABL.
It’s here where men’s and women’s championship sides as well as junior Victorian Championships and D League pennants currently call home.
Dandenong looks to the next generation – Aimie Clydesdale, Lauren Scherf, Rachael Antoniadou, Anthony Drmic, Mason Peatling, Marley Biyendolo and Michael Wearne among others – to make their impact in the game, its testament to people like Ron Burgess, Charles Ryan and other behind-the-scenes administrators and coaches that allowed the association’s best and brightest to shine.
