TERRY CHARLTON

6 feet 1 inch (185cm) Guard

1960 Olympic Games

The young Novocastrian had so far been successful in representing NSW at the Under 18 and Under 16 levels in basketball. A family friend, Secretary of Newcastle Basketball, and local sporting legend, Reg Gazzard took the youngster aside and asked him whether he wanted to be an Olympian? If he did then he would have to earn it. The youngster’s answer was “yes”. Gazzard then devised extra physical training sessions for the teenager outside basketball practice involving activities such as running through sand hills and doing jump squats all the way around a 400 metre oval! The message to the young player was that if you want to be the best then you have to be fitter and tougher than everyone else as well as talented. The program certainly gave the young Terry Charlton confidence in his fitness and ability to play at 100% effort all game and it also gave him the mental foundations to make the 1960 Australian Olympic Basketball Team. Terry Charlton was born on the 7th of September 1940 in Newcastle, NSW. Although Terry started playing basketball at twelve years of age he was active in a range of other sports. Learning to swim at four he went on to win a NSW Schools 50 metres Backstroke title at thirteen and represent his school at Regional and State Swimming Titles throughout his school career. As a wicketkeeper, Terry captained the 1st and 2nd grade high school cricket teams and also represented the high school in the 1st and 2nd grade Rugby League teams. However, Basketball was always his first choice and with the opportunity of playing in senior competitions at a young age Terry had the confidence to perform well for all his junior representative teams. As a basketball junior in Newcastle Terry was very much influenced by the coaching of Dr. John Raschke, “the founding father” of the National Basketball League (NBL), and by local sporting identity Reg Gazzard. Raschke a NSW player was named in the squad for the 1956 Olympics and had become one of the best coaches in Australian basketball. In 1955 Terry was selected as captain of the NSW Under 16 team which won the first ever Under 16 National Championship. He went on to represent NSW at the Under 18 Australian Championships in 1956 and 1957 and to win the title in 1957. His first selection on the NSW senior men’s team came in 1958 when he was nineteen years of age. On that team he was under the tutelage of coaching great Merv Emms. He represented NSW again in 1959 and after the Australian Championships he was selected, along with fellow Novocastrian Colyn Whitehead, on the 1960 Rome Olympic Basketball Team. He was twenty years of age. As a shooting guard, Terry was renowned as a smooth player with good technical skills, a tough defender, a playmaker, a good shooter, very fit and a leader. His leadership abilities plus his tough demeanor on the court made him a future choice as Captain of NSW.

Like all the other Australian basketball Olympians Terry was fully employed, yet he was required to go to Adelaide for three months while the team prepared for the 1960 Rome Olympic Games. He was fortunate that his employer Stewarts and Lloyds had an office in Adelaide which allowed him to work during this training period. “To sum up the training camp in Adelaide it would be fair to say it was amateurish compared to today’s standards and technical knowledge…. there was no medical support…all injuries were treated by the players themselves. We did not even have an Assistant Coach…just a Coach, Manager and a referee,” recalls Terry. Terry remembers that a training camp for the Olympic Team in Alice Springs (after the team left Adelaide on their way to Rome) was outdoors, and the practice games in the Philippines were valuable but the refereeing was terrible. After a long journey the team arrived in Rome where it played an Italian team, and then went on to the Italian city of Bologna. The 1960 Olympic team competed in the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Bologna. “The Olympic Qualifying Tournament was a great experience, although a very frustrating one! We were confronted with a new type of ball and very different refereeing which resulted in our team giving away too many fouls. As a result we were frustrated as a team and played without confidence,” Terry recalls. Terry cited in a letter home to his mother…his “greatest supporter and influence”…that Inga Freidenfelds (captain) and George Dancis were two who were playing with confidence (though Inga had an injured ankle). The Australians came up against a very strong Polish team early in the Olympic Qualification Tournament and were soundly beaten 115-65 and did not recover from that loss and failed to qualify for the Olympic Finals in Rome. “My role…along with Alan Hare and Allan Dawe…was to come off the bench to mainly replace John Heard or Lindsay Gaze,” recalls Terry. Team-mates remember Terry as an excellent defender. Unfortunately the Australians did not play their best basketball in the Qualification Tournament. There were injuries and a decided lack of experience against top class international competition. But there were compensations. The team was invited to Rome by the Australian Olympic Team delegation and accorded all the trimmings of being in the finals….except they had to live outside the Village.

“Some of my fondest memories were attending various sporting events at the Olympics in Rome. As well as seeing all the basketball I saw Herb Elliot win the 1500 metres track event. I also saw John Devitt, Murray Rose, and Dawn Fraser win Gold in the pool and Cassius Clay (later Mohamed Ali) win Gold in the boxing,” says Terry. He adds, “I received a lot of my ongoing motivation to succeed in the future because of my experiences at the Rome Games.” The cruise trip home by sea to Australia by most of the team on the MV “Strathaird” was enjoyable even though they had to run around the decks to keep fit for a game in Bombay against an Indian team. The famous 1960 West Indian cricket team which included Garfield Sobers, Conrad Hunt and Wes Hall was also on board. In the 1960’s Terry continued to play for Newcastle in the NSW competition and in the interstate South East Conference. He won twelve NSW State senior titles playing with Newcastle. This may be an Australian Club record? Terry played for NSW and Newcastle alongside other great Newcastle players such as Denis Kibble, Colyn Whitehead and John Gardiner all Australian representatives.