GEORGE DANCIS

6 feet 6 inch Forward/Centre

1956 Olympic Games

It was 1949 and the very tall and athletic young man boarded the boat bound for Australia. He was alone and was a refugee. His mother and father and younger brother were unable to come with him. His mind drifted back to the ravages of war in his beloved home country of Latvia and his beautiful home city of Riga from which he and the family had fled before the advancing Soviet troops. The Second World War occupation of Latvia by the Germans and then the subsequent so called liberation by the Soviets had seen his family flee to Germany in the hope that they would find protection and a new life in the allied occupation of Europe. He and his family had survived. Now as he stood on the ships deck and gazed out over the water he was looking ahead in wonderment about what his new life and new country would be like. He even had a moment to think to himself whether he would be able to play basketball, the game he had become to love. Time would tell. Juris (George) Dancis was born November 28th in Riga, Latvia in 1932. He and his family had suffered under the German invasion of Latvia during the Second World War. Times were hard and it was not an easy life for the youngster or his family. His family fled to Germany before the Soviet invading troops in 1944. In 1945 after the war a lot of refugees were placed in DP (Displaced Persons) Camps in Germany. George and his family were placed in a refugee camp of about 3,000 people in Wurzburg, Bavaria. Life was hard and at times boring as families applied for and waited for clearances to migrate as immigrants to countries outside Europe. Enterprising sports people put up basketball boards and rings to help the youngsters in the camps fill in their time and to keep them fit and healthy. In due course quite a few basketball teams were established and competitions between camps started. George attended the high school in the main camp, and started to play basketball in the junior team and then the senior teams. In 1949 George (who was of working age) left as a migrant for Australia while his mother and his younger brother Mike were delayed in Italy. Their father’s departure for Australia was delayed on health grounds. George lived in Melbourne. George’s brother Mike and his mother sailed to Australia in November 1949. Mike and his mother lived in the Migrants Camp at Bathurst, NSW where they worked locally to raise funds so that their father could join them. Unfortunately their father died in Europe shortly after he received permission to come to Australia.