NO 1 PETER BUMBERS
6 feet 1 inch (185cm) Guard
1956 Olympic Games
The 1956 Australian men’s team strolled through the Olympic Village in Heidelberg West in Melbourne chattering, smiling and full of excitement. They were the first Australian Basketball Team to represent their country at an Olympic Games. They hadevery right to be buoyed with anticipation. It seemed the ideal opportunity to etch the moment in time and Peter Bumbers called out to everyone, “I want a photograph. Everyone get together”. The group assembled. Peter’s wife Vita and young son Ivor were urged to join the group and Peter aimed his camera and took the shot. Little did he realise that his photograph would be one of the few photographs taken of the team as there was never an official team photo of the 1956 Olympic basketball team.
PeterisValdemars Bumbers was born on March 16th, 1926 in Riga, Latvia and played basketball at school from 1937. He attended First Riga City High School where he was taught some English. Peter’s father taught physics at the school and wrote various books on physics. The Soviet Union invaded Latvia in 1940 and the Soviets introduced their own curriculums. Peter’s family had a basketball basket in the backyard of the family villa in Riga and games of three on three basketball were very common. His life was interrupted further with the German invasion of Latviain 1941.Times were hard, threatening and the future very uncertain. However Peter managed to play basketball in a league from 1942 as he and his fellow Latvians attempted to gain some normality in life. He played with the “Daugaviesi” team.
The Russian forces marched back intoLatvia in 1944, drove the Germans out, and Peter’s family fled before the advancing forces as they were unwilling to become part of a Soviet Latvia. The family settled in a Displaced Persons “DP” Camp in Marktredwitz,Germany under American control. With the war’s end Peter’s family were in the refugee camp from 1945 to 1948. Their whole future was uncertain. Returning to the now Soviet territory of Latvia no longer seemed an option and the family waited on repatriation to somewhere in the world. Peter still managed to play basketball in the camps. He played all over West Germany and in particular in the American and British Zones and often against American military teams. The news then came that the family were to be given refugee status in Australia and they sailed to Australia in January 1949. They arrived in Bathurs,t NSW and then were sent to Melbourne.
Peter was a founding member with the Daina team in the Melbourne YMCA competition. He was a member of the Daina team that won the YMCA competitions in 1953, 1954 and 1956 and won the Victorian State Championships in 1953 and 1955. Peter also became coach of the Daina team.
Peter was a scorer! That was his strength and he was exceedingly hard to defend. He was a left-handed player. He scored 51 points in the semi-finals of the 1956 Victorian Championships (in the days before three-point lines and high scoring games). Peter also scored 50 points in a match for Victoria at the Australian Championships. Lindsay Gaze came to know Peter very well and they became good friends. Lindsay remembers that Peter scored 50 points in that game and only missed one shot, and on that shot Peter claimed he was fouled. “I enjoyed his company and he had a real love for the game,” recalls Lindsay.
Peter’s favourite shot was a “no-jump” jump shot from the top of the keyhole and he was a very high percentage shooter in his time.Olympic team-mate Geoff Heskettrecalls, “Peter Bumbers was probably the best set shot of all the players.”He had speed and very good fake passes according to those who saw him play.
With his scoring ability it was no wonder that Peter played for Victoria on over 50 occasions between 1949 and 1956. He was named to the All Australia Team after the Championships from 1951 to 1956 with the exception of 1953 when the Championships were not played. In that period Victoria won the Australian Championships every year from 1950 to 1955 with the exception of the no-championship year. In 1953 Peter played for Australia against the USA Far Eastern Air Force Team.
After the 1955 Australian Championships Peter was named to the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Basketball team squad and then was named as a member of the Olympic team in 1956. In doing so he was awarded the Medal of Merit in Sport from the Latvian Sports Federation in the Free World.
He was 30 years of age and one of the more experienced players on the team which also included a number of players who had also come from Europe as refugees after the Second World War.
Teammate Merv Moy remembers Peter. “I think I could honestly say that most times I marked Peter if I could keep him down to 15 points I was very lucky. He was very hard to hold, a great player”.
Peter played substantial minutes in the basketball games at the1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. His top score being 32 points in Australia’s 98-74 win over Singapore. Over the whole Olympic tournament he scored 80 points, took 32 rebounds and made 14 free-throws from 18 at 80%.
The opportunity to play at the Olympics against so many countries was a dream come true for all the players and especially so for the European refugee players who were able to enjoy the “Friendly Games” and the sunshine... and life was good. A far cry from the terrors and devastation they had endured in their homelands which were now a memory....but still a vivid memory. Australia was their new home and it offered so much for all of them.
Peter did not play representative basketball after the1956 Olympic Games. He continued to follow the game and was always prepared to have a chat about basketball whenever he could.
He has the honour (based on alphabetical order) of being the first Australian Olympic basketball player.
Peter Bumbers passed away in 1984 at the age of 58.
Peter Bumbers (M. Dancis)
Peter Bumber’sbrother Janis’sOlympic Identification Card. Janis acted as a volunteer support for the basketball tournament.
Note that Identification card is signed by the Australian Team Coach Ken Watson, who was also the Honorary Secretary of the Australian Basketball Union.
(Courtesy of the Bumbers family)
Peter Bumbers (7) scoring for Australia in the 1956 Olympic Games
(Courtesy of the Public Record Office of Victoria)