The Hawks will take on the Franklin Bulls at the same venue earlier in the day (at 3.30pm), with the fixture part of the club’s official 50th anniversary celebration.
One of the original Hawks players, Craig Daly, recently returned to Centennial Hall to reflect on where it all began.
“In the 1970s, Hawke’s Bay teams struggled to compete with the bigger centres,” Daly said.
“The larger cities were bringing in import players and we realised, if we wanted to compete, we had to think differently too.”
That thinking led to the formation of the Hadleigh Homes team in 1976, the side that would eventually evolve into today’s Big Barrel Hawks franchise.
Led by American player-coach Ed Donahue and fellow import John Conrad, alongside a core of Napier talent, the team adopted a defence-first philosophy that carried them from underdogs to national champions within a single season.
“We weren’t going to outscore everyone,” Daly said. “Our philosophy was simple. If we could hold a team to 75 points, we only needed 76.”
Against the odds, the side qualified for the New Zealand Club Championships, losing their opening game before storming through the remainder of the tournament and defeating Auckland’s Coca-Cola side in the final.
“It really was rags to riches,” Daly said. “We went from the bottom to the top.”
Back then, Centennial Hall looked very different to the modern Rodney Green Arenas.
Temporary seating had to be assembled before each game, with crowds of up to 1000 packing the venue to watch the region’s rising basketball stars.
Daly said seeing the Hawks reach their 50th year was something the original group always hoped for.
“Once we established it, we wanted it to go on forever.”
Tickets for the anniversary game are available at hawks.org.nz.
