Horsham Amateur Basketball Association’s meeting room is filled with framed photos of former players and teams.
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There are photos of players who have represented Victoria and Australia, played in the National Basketball League and college basketball in America.
Odds are that Owen Hughan coached all the players in that room at one stage of their junior basketball career.
The association’s president has made basketball his life throughout more than 50 years of involvement with the sport.
Growing up in North Richmond, Hughan first played basketball for the Church of England Boys’ Society around Melbourne in the 1950s.
“In Melbourne you played in church halls and there wasn’t much junior sport around that time,” Hughan said. “I started playing in that when I was 12 years old and I was hooked.”
Hughan still isn’t sure where his passion for basketball came from. It wasn’t from his parents; it was just something he picked up and never stopped.
Hughan became fascinated with the formations, tactics and challenges of basketball – so much so that he calls himself a “basketball junkie”.
As a junior player, Hughan represented Victoria at under-16 and under-18 levels. He was named as an All-Australian and captained Victoria as an under-18.
“They only named five players as All-Australians and it meant a lot,” he said.
“You go away to a national championship and you understood the significance. You were playing for your state and then to be one of five players for the All-Australian, it was special.”
Hughan was an All-Australian junior from 1956-58 and then went on to have a successful senior career representing his state.
In the post-war era, immigration to Melbourne was booming and an influx of European migrants made for a dynamic and popular basketball culture.
“Basketball was still finding its feet and the Olympics were in Melbourne in 1956,” Hughan said.
“It was just the basketball people who were following it. With all the immigration from Europe, it brought the standard up quite considerably.
“I remember playing in one league and there was basically every culture represented.”
From 1959 to 1964, Hughan was a senior Victorian player and won a national championship in 1961. Hughan would also coach Victoria to a national title later in his career.
Hughan never cracked the Australian team, but his skill in his prime rivalled that of Australian players.
“You need a bit of luck to play for your country, but I knew my limitations,” he said.
“Whether I became a great never really concerned me. At one stage I was a starter for Victoria as a senior. That was the highest you could play then.”
As a player, Hughan was a guard. He admits guards now are a lot taller than when he was playing.
“I was a guard but the population is taller now,” he said. “A guard spot now would be about 6-foot. I do believe the kids who were good then would still be good today.”
After playing, Hughan turned his attention to coaching. He coached Melbourne East, which is now the Nunawading Basketball Association, to back-to-back Victorian championships in 1968-69 – an achievement Hughan ranks as one of his best.
“I was still playing very well but I was 28 and was getting towards the end of my playing days,” he said.
“Melbourne East had sacked their coach and players took in turns coaching each week and I thought that was ridiculous. I decided to coach but I didn’t play.
“We had virtually built an under-21 team. We qualified for finals and we knocked off the Melbourne Tigers. They had six Olympic players in their team.
“They thought it was a fluke and changed the finals format to a best of three. We played them the next year in the finals and beat them in two straight games.
“When I look back at my career, that was probably the best thing to have ever happened to me.”
Hughan coached Melbourne East for 12 years. From 1984-85, Hughan was a coach in the recently formed National Basketball League for Coburg before making the switch to Horsham.
“I was talked into coaching in the NBL – the competition was very big,” he said.
“We travelled all around Australia. It was a basically full-time job just managing the egos there.
“I was offered to coach the national Australian basketball team at one time. A person who was very influential in selecting the next national coach asked me if I wanted to do it or not, but I didn’t.
“I’d be coaching the national team and then I had my job as a teacher, too. It would be too much.”
Hughan moved to Horsham in 1986 to get away from the demands of basketball.
Even though he was seeking a rest from basketball, it didn’t take him long to be drawn to the Horsham association.
Hughan first coached a girls’ team in the late 1980s and went on to coach the Horsham Hornets for 15 years. In 1991, in front of a Horsham home crowd, Hughan led Horsham to a Country Victoria Invitational Basketball League title.
The team had paid American players and Hughan described the win as "sensational”.
Since, Hughan helped build a basketball program that has produced NBL players such as Melissa McClure, Shaun Bruce, Aaron Bruce, Shane McDonald and Mitch Creek.
Hughan also saw plenty of footballers from the Wimmera make it into the AFL.
He always knew the talent pool for basketball existed in the region, but worked out a way to tap into it.
“In Melbourne, senior players can walk in the door,” he said. “Out here, you have players come in as under-12s and you know in a few years they will be your senior side. We had to think of ways to try and build our players up.
“We never prepared basketballers to just stay in Horsham. We prepared them to go onto play at a higher level. I think the association has been very, very successful.”
Hughan is a life member of Basketball Victoria and a part of Nunawading’s legends board.
In 2012, Hughan was awarded an Order of Australia medal recognising his services to basketball. For all the awards he has received, he ranks this as the one he is most proud of.
Looking around the meeting room in the Horsham basketball stadium, Hughan said he was “very happy” for the players who had achieved success thanks to his coaching.
“We grow players to the best of our ability, but to get into the top level you also need a bit of luck,” he said.
“Of course I still enjoy coaching. I grew up in a really tough area in Melbourne and the only thing that got me out of that area was basketball. The game has changed a lot, but I still love coaching the juniors.”
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