The Australian Myths & Legends formation resulted from a 1987 meeting between Peter Halligan and Peter Paterson at the Mitre Tavern in Melbourne. Their foresight in developing a mature age basketball club has resulted in a club that has had over 800 players and officials involved in the Club’s history; this makes it the biggest organised Master’s Basketball Club in Australia and one of the largest in the world. The first tournament where the Myths & Legends competed was the Australian Masters Games played in Hobart in 1987, where the Club won two gold medals, in the age groups of 0/35 and 0/40 (some of these players still compete in the 0/65, 0/70 & 0/75s).
While the Club initially was set up for elite players, in 1996 after most of the elite players retired the Clubs focus was changed to encourage players of all abilities to become involved in mature aged basketball. Elite players who have played with the Club include David Lindstrom, Ken Cole, Lindsay Gaze, Rocky Crosswhite, Brian Kerle, Eddy Palubinskas, Malcolm Speed, Peter Byrne, John Heard, Ric Longley, Richard Duke, David Zhang, Mike Dancis, Denis Kibble, Mike Slusher, Toli Koltun, Russell Simon etc. Current elite players with the Club include Ken Burbridge, Frank Jones, Bryan Hennig, Peter Lawler and Andrew Parkinson.
In 1998 the Club together with the Bulleen Masters Basketball Club combined to field 3 teams in the World Masters Games in Portland, USA. After these Games the two Clubs agreed to merge. Bulleen had a proud history of competing in Masters from 1991. Bulleen had a number of fine people involved in their basketball and the merger was a success from the start.
The Myths & Legends has completed in every World and Australian Masters Games since 1987 and a host of other selected tournaments. The Club targets at least one major tournament per year and now competes in every age group from 0/35 to 0/75. The 0/75s players are an inspiration to all our members and certainly gives us something to aim at. We currently have 5 players that train and play regularly that are in their eighties. Ken Baird (89), Des De Kretser (84), Don Roberts (81), Gianni Giarganeli (80) and Don Wilson (80).
The Club first entered a women’s team in a master’s tournament in the 2002 World Masters Games in Melbourne (thanks to the encouragement of Des De Kretser). From 2006 the Myths & Legends Club has regularly entered women’s teams into master’s tournaments. Over the years the number of women players and teams has grown (thanks to Sue Watson, etc ). The introduction of women to the Club has been a great success.