Basketball stars unite for a good cause

Hoops for Hospice book documents best all-time Windsor players

Windsor’s basketball history is rich and varied, and one with tremendous historic benchmarks on the national roundball landscape.

The Ford V-8s, Olympic silver medallists at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games and to this day the only Canadian basketball team to win an Olympic medal, were from Windsor.

In 1946, Windsorites Gino Sovran and Hank Biasatti played for the Toronto Huskies, the first Canadian NBA team.

A little over three decades later, W.D. Lowe grads Mike and Don Brkovich played for the 1978-79 NCAA champion Michigan State Spartans, becoming the first Canadians to earn a title at March Madness.

More recently, the Windsor Express captured back-to-back National Basketball League of Canada titles.

The players involved in all of these accomplishments and more are sure to be documented in the new book Hoops for Hospice, written by a cast of local basketball luminaries headed by Bob Turner.

The authors of what will come to be viewed as Windsor’s encyclopedia of basketball will introduce the all-time, all-city team, as well as the best 55 local hoopsters of all-time in the last 55 years, at the Caboto Club, beginning at 7 p.m. Friday. Admission to the event is free. The book, a compilation of player and coach stories as well as the local development of the game, will be on sale over the course of the evening.

The writing team will be sharing anecdotes and stories of how the best players and all-city team were chosen.

Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to benefit patient and family programs and services at the Hospice.