No 35 RAY WATSON
5 feet 11 inch (181cm) Guard
1968 Olympic Games
The two brothers, eleven and eight years old, were going at it in the backyard-laneway fighting for basketball supremacy on the court, ring and backboard their dad had erected. Althoughthere was three years age difference, they were similar in size. The older brother was small for his age, the younger brother was robust and an all round sportsman in cricket, football (AFL) and golf. So these “games” were a question of pride and status in the family. The rivalry continued when other boys joined in the game (basketball backboards in backyards were very rare in these days). Boys like AttiAbonyi,a future Australian soccer representative player, added to the competitiveness and vigour of the occasion as they joined in the contests.
The older brother, Ray Watson was born May 31st, 1946 in North Fitzroy, Melbourne,Victoria.His father was Ken Watson a top-class player and a future Australian Olympic Basketball Coach (1956 and 1968) and his mother Betty a future icon of women’s basketball. Basketball was in his blood!
Ray says that he owes a lot to his younger brother Ian. “It was the incentive of staying ahead of Ian that pushed me into practising to improve my sporting ability.”
Ray started formal competition basketball when he was 1thirteen years of age with the CEBS team. There was no Under 12 or Under 14 State Championship basketball in those days and junior players just played with Clubs.
Ray commenced playing with the Melbourne Church Club. This Club was to go on and be one of the supreme Clubs in Australian basketball history and for periods dominated Victorian and Australian competitions. Under his father’s guidance and that of senior Club players such as Olympians Bill Wyatt and Lindsay Gaze, the youngsters, Ray and Ian, were in the best possible basketball situation. They quickly became skilled, competitive and determined, and this led to Club and State team selections.
In 1960 Ray made the Church Under16 representative team to play Club basketball. In 1961 he was still in the Under 16 age group team for Melbourne and then in 1962 he made his first State team when he was selected for the Victorian Under 18 team for the National Championships held in Sydney. The team did not make the Final. Ray made the Victorian Under 18 team again in 1963 for the Nationals in Hobart and this time the team made the Final only to lose to NSW56-49.
Ray was now playing for the senior Melbourne Church team and had the great opportunity of practising and playing with the likes of Lindsay Gaze and Bill Wyatt. At that time the Church Club played two teams in the State competition (Melbourne and Auburn). Ray’s brother Ian was to go on and play for Auburn for several years (before playing for the Tigers from 1970) while Ray played for Melbourne until he retired in 1970.
In 1964 his first year out of juniors Ray made the Victorian State men’s team which played in the Australian Championships held in Adelaide where the team was defeated in the Final 49-48 by South Australia.
Ray played for Victoria in theMen’s National Basketball Championships from 1964 to 1968, winning the National Championships in 1966 and 1968.
After the 1968 National Championship Final in Sydney, Ray was named as a member of the Australian Men’s Team to play at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. This was a great accolade and effort for the kid who grew up trying to compete with his younger and more physical brother. His brother Ian was also to go on and play for Australia at the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games.
The 1968 Olympic basketball campaign for the Australians was not a happy one as the team did not win a game in the Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Monterrey Mexico and did not go to the Finals in Mexico City. The team suffered from a short preparation, lack of matches leading into the tournament, bad food, injury, long train trips, poor officiating and general bad luck. Ray and the team did however attend the Games in Mexico City and enjoyed the “wonderful experience”.
Ray did not play representative basketball after 1969 and concentrated on his academic career. He did play lower grade basketball, mainly with Melbourne University. Ray helped the University win several Reserve Division Championships and an Intervarsity Championship in 1978. Coaching junior basketball teams also kept him in the sport. He went on to become a University lecturer in statistics (his father Ken was a mathematics teacher).
Ray, a quiet humble man who loved playing junior basketball and who never saw himself as a championlost his family photo albums and basketball memorabilia in the 1983 Victorian Ash Wednesday bushfires and he lost his brother Ian to a very premature death.
Ray Watsoncan look back in pride on his family achievements in basketball and with similar pride on what he has achieved on and off the basketball court and in his academic life.
Ray Watson arriving in Mexico City in 1968 (P. Byrne)
Ray Watson in his Victorian uniform (Courtesy of R. Watson)