By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Few have given as much to Dandenong Basketball Association as stalwart basketball administrator and referee Ron Burgess.
As a ‘labour of love’, the Cranbourne East 80-year-old has ploughed in up-to-12 hour days as president and basketball manager.
His time in the sport spans 68 years, including at national and state league levels.
Mr Burgess receives due recognition for his service, announced as a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia in the 2018 Australia Day Honours List.
He is renowned as a long-serving referee and lead referee coach in the National Basketball League, officiating in the 1981 NBL Grand Final between Launceston Casino City and Nunawading Spectres.
Basketball Victoria, Dandenong Basketball Association and Dandenong Basketball Referees Association have bestowed life membership.
Mr Burgess started playing the sport when Australian basketball was in its “rough and ready” infancy in 1949.
That was when one of the few local venues was – incredibly – on the first floor of the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
A safety net had to be erected to catch players in case they fell over the mezzanine handrail.
He opted for basketball over the all-persuasive Aussie Rules partly because of his skinny build.
“I was one of those kids that got to the front for milk at school at 10 o’clock in the morning.”
A number of hard hits on the footy field delivered by student-cum-trucking magnate Lindsay Fox confirmed his choice.
He met his wife Lesley through basketball, while he was refereeing womens games in Kensington.
They have been a constant at Dandenong basketball since Mr Burgess started as a championship-winning playing coach in the early 1960s.
He oversaw the association grow from a country league club to a state powerhouse that recruited former Harlem Globetrotter Willie Anderson as coach in 1969.
More recently has been the stellar success of the WNBL Dandenong Rangers.
In the meantime, Victoria has grown into a hub of basketball popularity. It has as many players as the rest of Australia combined, he notes.
Despite massive venues across Melbourne, the state is about 60 full-time courts short of keeping up with the “monstrous” demand, he says.
“Parents are willing to pay up to $1500 a season to see their kids in the (Dandenong) green-and-gold.”
He played, coached and refereed some of Australia’s best players such as Lindsay and Andrew Gaze.
As a ref, he prided himself on being upfront and “fair dinkum”.
“I saw some who bordered on cheating. Sooner or later, you then become unstuck.”
Now full-time carer for his wife, he regrets he doesn’t have as much time to devote to the sport. He doesn’t miss the back-office politics but the teaching of the game.
The sport has been part of Mr Burgess’s family – including his brother, children and grandchildren.
“The amount of good people that I met in all aspects of administration, refereeing, playing and coaching …
“The sport has been really good for us.”
