Julie Nykiel was born December 13th 1958 in Glenelg, South Australia. She started playing basketball when she was thirteen years of age after watching her father Kevin play at the Marion Basketball Stadium. The Nykiel family lived one house from the stadium and Julie knew as soon as she watched her first game of basketball that it was a game she thought she might play well.
Julie had been playing netball for her school and church up to then as a defender and she liked the fact that in basketball you weren’t restricted to where you could go on the court like you were in netball. She also liked the fact that any player could shoot the ball. She was quite a good 100m sprinter in her primary school days and thought she could make good use of this skill on the basketball court especially in transition from one end of the court to the other.
After a relatively short time she was spotted by Glenelg basketball official Cliff Fawcett who invited her to join the Tigers and play for a District Club. She took up his invitation and quickly climbed the ranks and made her first Under 18 State Squad at fifteen years of age. In that same year she started playing District Basketball (State League) for Glenelg’s Senior Women’s Team and it was also where she renewed her friendship with Jenny Cheesman a future Olympic basketball player.
Julie first met Jenny on an interschool netball trip to Penola in South Australia’s South-East. Jenny was a year older than Julie (Grade 7) and Julie played in another team (Grade 6). Julie recalls, “I remember seeing her play as a centre in netball and thought to myself that she was so naturally talented and I greatly admired the way she conducted herself on and off the court. That was the moment I think that I saw her as my role model and hero.”
Julie was an outstanding junior player in the Adelaide competitions and as a juniorrepresented SA in the senior Women’s Australian Basketball Championships.
At the 1977 Australian Basketball Championships Julie was selected in her first Australian Women’s Basketball Squad at the age of eighteen. No Australian Women’s Basketball Team was selected that year.
Julie’s first selection for Australia was in 1978 when she was selected on the Australian Team that won the Oceania 1979 World Championships Qualification Tournament in New Zealand. She was also selected for Australia for a fifteen match tour of Europe and China in August-September that year.
Julie was selected on the 1979 Australian Team to play in the 1979 World Championships in Korea. Australia played two games in a Pre-World Games Tournamentand then in the World Championships themselves.
Australia played outstanding basketball and finished in 4th place at the World Championships and demonstrated to the world that Australia was on the rise in international women’s basketball.At this time Julie was twenty years of age.
She was selected on the 1980 Australian Women’s Basketball Team that contested the 1980 Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Bulgaria. Unfortunately the team failed to qualify for the finals in the Moscow Olympic Games.
From 1979 to1982 Julie played in the SA State League Netball Competition with Sabres Netball Club, winning Premierships in 1979, 1980 and 1982. Jenny Cheesman, Pat and Lee Mickan were also members of the Sabres team.
Julie toured with the Australia Team to China and Chinese Taipei in 1981 and 1982. At the William Jones Cup in Taipei she was named to the Tournament All Star Team.
Her outstanding basketball career continued when she was selected to the Australian Women’s Team for the 1983 World Championships in Brazil. The team finished 11th in the World Championships. That same year Julie played for Australia in the Commonwealth Championships (which they won) and in the next year in a series against China.
In 1984 Julie played for Australia when it played in the 1984 Olympic Qualification Tournament that was held in Cuba. The team played outstandingly but failed to qualify for the Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles. Julie returned to Australia devastated. However in a last minute twist the Australians were included in the 1984 Olympic Gameswhen Hungary, Cuba and the USSR decided to boycott the Games.
In regard to the 1984 Olympic GamesJulie recalls. “Walking in the Colosseum for Australia at the 1984 LA Olympics Opening Ceremony was one of the best experiences of my life and still sends shivers down my spine every time I think of it.”
Julie had an outstanding Olympic Tournament. She gave away height and size to her opponents but again proved to be a handful for the opposition. Her highest scores were 18 points against China and 15 against Korea. In a major upset Australia defeated Yugoslavia in their last game and finished in fifth position (out of six teams).
Julie’s illustrious basketball career continued as she performed outstandingly in the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) in Australia and with her Noarlunga Club. Julie had played in the inaugural WNBL which started in 1981. In 1982 Julie setWNBL record when she scored 53 points in a game. This was a record that was to last for 23 years and was set in the days prior to the three point line. Not that the three point line would have appealed to Julie as her strength was playing near the basket. She was only 183cm tall and played all her life against bigger opponents. This was particularly so in international basketball.
Julie was a member of the Australian Team that won the Gold Medal at the inaugural Australia Games and the Oceania Championships in 1985. At the end of that year she toured to Europe for 12 games with the Australian Team.
Julie played for Australia in the 1986 World Championships in the Soviet Union where the team finished in 9th place.
She was a member of the Australian Team that undertook a seventeen games trip to the USA and Canada in 1987.
In 1988 she played for Australia against Canada in Canada (five games) before playing for Australia when it finished in sixth place at the 1988 Olympic Qualification Tournament in Malaysia and thereby qualified for the Olympic Games in Seoul.
The 1988 Seoul Olympic tournament was to be a defining time for the Australian Women’s Basketball Team as they defied all expectations (except for themselves) and qualified for the Olympic Games Women’s Basketball semi-finals. In the semi-final they lost on a last second basket to Yugoslavia. A win inthat game would have put them through to the Gold Medal game. Unfortunately that first Olympic medal evaded them when they lost to the USSR in the Bronze Medal playoff game. The Australian Team finished in 4th position. It was a brilliant performance.
Julie says, “I was bitterly disappointed that we didn’t come home with that elusive medal but put it in perspective a few months after the Olympics. I thought that our performance at those Olympics was brilliant.”
The Seoul Olympics were the finalappearance for Julie in an Australian uniform as she retired from representative basketball but continued to play for Noarlunga in the WNBL until her retirement in 1990.Throughout her WNBL career Julie played for only one Club and that was the Noarlunga Club in Adelaide.
She had played with great distinction in a career that took her to the greatest heights.
Despite her disappointments at not winning a WNBL title Julie did win two WNBL Most Valuable Awards in 1984 and 1988, and five WNBL Top Point Scorer Awards in 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1988. She is the 5th highest field goal percentage shooter all-time in the WNBL.
She missed one WNBL season in 1989 after having major ankle surgery after the Seoul Olympics and was told by the medicos that she would not be able to play basketball for twelve months. That was when she picked up playing netball again and played for “Contax” in the State League. To demonstrate her sporting versatility Julie was selected in the SA Senior State Netball Teams in 1989 and 1991.
Julie Nykiel played over 400 games in the SA State Basketball League Competition and on many occasions was the competitions’ top point-scorer, best defensive player and was awarded Most Valuable Player in 1981 and 1991.
Julie says, “The biggest influences on my basketball career were my mum and dad who ferried me to all those early games and training sessions before I could drive, and they were always supporting me throughout my career.”
Julie adds“Brendan Flynn was probably the most influential coach on me. Other people who contributed to my success were coaches Jim Madigan, Kay MacFarlane, players Heather Mickan, Lee Mickan, Sandy Porter (Prettejohn), Tracy Morris and of course Jenny Cheesman.”
In 2005 Julie was named in the WNBL’s 25th Anniversary team and was awarded Life Membership of the WNBL in 2002. A Life Member of Noarlunga City Tigers and Basketball South Australia she received the Basketball Australia Merit Award in 1987. She was a radio commentatorat the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and won a Gold medal in the 1994 World Masters Games (35-40 years group). In 1997 she was awarded an OAM for services to Basketball, Netball and the community. She carried the Olympic Torch in 2000 and in 2003 was awarded the Australian Centenary of Australia Medal. In 2000 she was awarded the Australian Sports Medal.
Julie Nykiel was inducted into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.