Historic ’81 flag unfurled

FOR years it was tucked away in a box somewhere in a Hobart shed, but a big part of Launceston’s basketball history will finally find a home at the Silverdome.

After the Launceston Casino City team was no more, the 1981 NBL Championship flag they won in the second of three years in the league simply vanished.

As renovations occurred at the team’s old Dowling St courts it slipped through the cracks, but was found in a Hobart shed a couple of years ago.

It was unveiled on the Silverdome rafters before Wednesday’s JackJumpers-South East Melbourne Phoenix clash.

Dean Draper, a long-time coach and administrator in the state’s north, was part of the 1981 championship squad and has also been inducted into the JackJumpers’ new ‘Bloodlines’ group, established to acknowledge the sport’s trail blazers in the state.

“It (flag) hung on the wall of the old Dowling St courts and when they renovated down there it just got packed up and nobody knew what really happened with it,” he said.

“It seemed it just got put into a box by one of the contractors, got thrown in a garage and a couple of years ago someone was tidying up and found it.

“It’s lucky it’s around again and it will be great to see it hanging up again.

“That (1981) championship was one of those unbelievable things that will never happen again, not in Launceston at least anyway.”

Draper said the growth of the sport in the state compared to his playing days, when it had only a cult following before the American imports came to town, is remarkable.

“In ’81 Dowling St had a capacity of 400 people,” Draper said.