ROSS GRAHAM

6 feet 5 inch (195cm) Forward/Centre

1960 Olympic Games

The game in progress was part of the Australian South Eastern Basketball Conference being played at North Sydney Boys High School. The quick guard from the Victorian Club team Church passed to his forward and then made a slicing cut off a post screen set by his teammate. The next thing the player knew was that he collided with an opposition player that he never saw coming. He was now flat on the floor and winded. He was wondering what happened. The opposition defender on the post screener simply stepped out and “bumped the cutter who was looking for a return pass from his forward. The opposition player was very strongly built and looked like he did not “take too many prisoners”. That player was Ross Graham of the Paratels club in Sydney, a tough as teak “big man” with real “pivot” skills. Ross Graham was born on the 13th of May 1936 in Stanmore, Sydney NSW. He started playing basketball in 1950 at Fort Street High School. He joined the Public Service in 1951 and in 1952 he was selected in the Under18 Public Services team to play in the NSW State Championships. After the State Championships he joined Newtown Police Citizens Boy’s Club (NPCBC). Although he started playing the game at a late stage his improvement was very rapid. His strength, height and aggression were a big asset in these early days of his career. Ross was influenced in his early career by NPCBC Coach Harry Burgess (future Assistant Coach of the 1956 Olympic team) and by 1956 Olympians Merv Moy, Bruce Flick and Ken Finch as well as Jack Feeney, Harry Beak and Sid Whiteoak all of whom played with the Newtown PCBC. Ross was selected in the NSW Senior Men’s Squad in 1953 and was then selected to his first NSW State side and played his first game for NSW in 1959 at the Australian Championships in Adelaide. He was in good company as his team-mate at NPCBC Olympian Bruce Flick was also on the team as were future 1960 Olympians Colyn Whitehead and Terry Charlton from Newcastle. The team went on to lose the national final 76-64 to South Australia. Ross was considered a “big man” even though he was only 6’4” tall. He was a very strong and solidly built player and was a very good passer and “pivot”. In that period the centres were classed as pivots around which the offense was often run. He was also an excellent rebounder and a very physical player with a patented fake and dribble roll to the basket. Such was Ross’s play in his first ever national tournament that at the end of the tournament he was named to the Australian Team for the 1960 Rome Olympics. It was a meteoric rise! The 1960 Rome Australian Olympic Basketball Team consisted of six players from South Australia, three from NSW, two from Victoria and one from Western Australia. Ross and the players received communications from Coach Eric Erkins (who lived in South Australia) which contained instructions for shooting drills and individual preparation.

The team was asked to come to Adelaide, SA three months prior to the Olympics. For many players this meant taking Leave-Without-Pay. Ross was one of the fortunate ones in that he got leave from the NSW Maritime Services Board to work at the Adelaide Brewing Company while he trained in Adelaide. In Adelaide he boarded with team-mates brothers John and Mal Heard. Ross remembers, “I was lucky I boarded with the Heard brothers and they taught me a lot about basketball.” In Adelaide Ross and the team worked during the day, trained at night and played in the Adelaide District competition. It was an exhausting preparation.