User:DarrenMentor/Toowoomba Mountaineers

The Toowoomba Mountaineers are a basketball team from Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. The team participates in the Queensland Australian Basketball League, a Division of the ABA Australian Basketball Association

Team History
The "Mountaineers" were born foundedin the late 1960’s as the brainchild of by Barry Raftery and Neville Bousen. They played in the Eastern Conference competition against teams as far south as Hobart and gave Toowoomba its first glimpse of regular home games at the Indoor Bowls Hall. During this time Mountaineer Lyle Arndt was selected in the Australian team.

This Conference folded because of the tyranny of problems wit distance and was replaced by State and National Championships. where Barry Raftery, Barry Nielsen, Harry Spencer and John Gouldson coached teams predominantly consisting of the Mountaineers but badged as South Queensland. The official format of this competition during the 1970’s was one state and one national championship each year and mostly not in Toowoomba so the locals did not see games very often. Periodically a visiting American team played the Mountaineers in Toowoomba. During this era Trevor Dallas, Peter Rillie, Don Clark, Brian Macnish, Lyn Kearey and Cheryl Bliss were selected in Queensland teams.

Because of the lack of regular competition Basketball Queensland changed the format of the State Championships to a Club Carnival format in the early 1980’s when Saints Club coached by Harry Spencer and John Gouldson represented Toowoomba. During this time Toowoomba produced our only Olympians in John Dorge and Donna Brown (nee Quinn).

In the mid 1980’s Basketball Queensland introduced the AAABL series where invitation players from USA combined with the Mountaineers to play a home and away series which was played during July - September and this was the first time Toowoomba witnessed a genuine competition for the Mountaineers. The Mountainettes were born at this time.

The State League was born in Queensland in the late 1980’s and this competition ushered in the most successful era for basketball in Toowoomba with capacity crowds filling the stadium. John Rillie, Jenny Screen (both current NBL players) and the legendary Pop Dickerson are the products of this era. Harry Spencer, Lyn Kearey and Trevor Dallas were the driving forces behind the coaching of this time.

The costs of running a full state league and joining the ABA League resulted in the splitting of the Toowoomba teams in the late 1990’s where the USQ Association played ABA and the TBA in the Southern Cross. The division was not successful as it was difficult to support both competitions. We now have the leagues combined with the Mountaineers men and women giving Toowoomba people the opportunity to see the best players in a genuine home and away series.

Past and Present Players

 * David Blades
 * Torben Marcussen
 * Trevor Grieve
 * John Dorge
 * Clarence "POP" Dickerson
 * Danny Morseau
 * John Rillie

Mountaineers Hall of Fame
2001


 * J. Armstrong
 * D. Blades
 * C. Bliss
 * K. Brunner
 * T. Dallas
 * C. Dickerson
 * John Gouldson
 * L. Kearey
 * B. Nielsen
 * Brian Mcnish
 * Barry Raftery
 * John Rillie
 * Harry Spencer
 * Ron Tape

2002


 * M. Nielsen
 * K. Dallas
 * D. Brown
 * John Dorge

2003


 * Torben Marcussen
 * Peter Rillie
 * K. Schultz
 * Charlie Ubergang

2005


 * Trevor Grieve

2009


 * Clive Berghofer
 * Gayle Hohn

2012


 * Jenni Screen