PHOTOS: DAY ONE OF THE GBR MASTERS GAMES
FOR Betty Watson OAM, the Masters Games epitomises everything she loves about sport.
The Basketball Australia hall of fame inductee, who turns 94 next week, has been a tireless champion for the sport for more than 60 years.
Watson is considered the matriarch of Australian women’s basketball and, along with her late husband Ken, helped introduce the sport into Australia and established it to grow into the phenomenon it is today.
She got her first taste of basketball in 1942, as a young nurse during World War II, after she was introduced to the sport by American nurses stationed in Australia.
“They called it basketball but it was truly netball,” she said.
“In 1954, my husband Ken Watson was national secretary at the time and he had this direction from the international body, FIBA, to start women’s basketball in Australia.
“We put an ad in the Sporting Globe, which was a wellknown sporting paper in Melbourne at the time. That’s where it all started; now it’s come to all these wonderful tournaments and friendships that last forever.”
Watson came all the way from Aireys Inlet on the Great Ocean Rd to be part of the Games, taking on the unofficial role of team manager with the Butterflies.
“They invited me to come up,” she said. “This might be the last trip they do together as a team – some of the girls are over 70 years old.”
She said the companionship she had experienced through the sport had been enormous.