No 56 MEL DALGLEISH
6 feet 5 inch (195cm) Forward
1980, 1984 Olympic Games
The seventeen year old young man was about to break with habit. Most Saturday nights he would go out with his mates to parties and a good time. Then the next day his coach, Tony Gaze would phone and the lad’s mother would drag him out of bed and drive him to team training where he would train hard with quite a “hangover” and fuzzy head. Tonight he was breaking that tradition and decided to stay home with his mum, watch Don Lane on television, enjoy mum’s favourite passionate sponge cake with her and have a quiet night. The next day it was off to training and the seventeen year old had the basketball session of his life, dunking, scoring, and playing with great energy and gusto. “The penny dropped! I realised that I couldn’t have a life of partying and be a good basketball player. You can’t have both. I cut off my shoulder length hair, threw away the headband and made the commitment to being a player,” recalls Mel Dalgleish.
Melvyn “Mel” Dalgleish was born January 24th, 1959 in Springvale, Victoria. He started playing basketball at age ten at Dandenong. He also played “footy” (AFL) and participated in athletics. Like many other future basketball players he was very good at AFL and had interest from St Kilda and Fitzroy AFL Clubs. “But I enjoyed the culture of basketball much more. The closer team emphasis and the attitude just appealed to me more,” remembers Mel.
At Dandenong Mel came under the coaching of Tony Gaze brother of Lindsay Gaze from the Melbourne Church Club. Mel recalls that also at Dandenong was Olympian Michael Tucker (1976 Olympics) and he was an inspiration and someone for Mel to emulate. His early coaching was by Steve Collette (U12, U14) however he recalls that Tony Gaze had a hand in the coaching of all teams at the Club. “Tony was forever chasing me and ringing my mother to ensure that I came to training, and this she did”, says Mel. Mel was selected to the Victorian Under 14 representative team. He did not represent Victoria again until the Under 20 level.
In 1978 Mel had the incentive and urging by Tony Gaze to work hard to make the Victorian Under 20 team as after the Under 20 National Championships an AustralianUnder 20 team would be selected for a tour to Europe. Mel made the Victorian team that contested the Under 20 National Championships held in Canberra. The Victorians under Coach Barry Barnes swept all before them. Mel was one of the standouts of the tournament and was selected to the Australian Under 20 team.
In the weeks between the National Championships and the start of the tour to Europe Mel played with the Dandenong senior men’s team in the Australian Club Championships held in Adelaide. Dandenong were without their American players and Mel revelled in the extra responsibility and opportunity and was the leading scorer in the tournament. On the way home to Melbourne after the tournament his car was flagged down by Tony Gaze. Mel recalls,“Tony pulled us over and told me that Andy Campbell had just withdrawn from the Australian Men’s Team to play in the World Championships in the Philippines and that I was in the team and had to call Coach Lindsay Gaze as soon as I could. I was in the Australian Team and hadn’t even been to an Australian Team training session!”
Mel did not go to Europe with the National Under 20 Basketball Team, instead he went to the Philippines with the Senior National Team. First the Australian Team did a tour of Australia playing an American Athletes in Action team and then it was off to Manila. He found the whole experience of the 1978 World Championships an invaluable learning experience as he was able to see what was required to play at the international level. Mel had a good tournament and received good minutes on the playing floor and came back to Australia determined to play for Australia in the future.
In 1979 Mel moved to the Frankston club (with Tony Gaze) in the Victorian League and that year he was awarded the Ken Watson Trophy for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the Victorian League. “I am very proud of that award and it is one of the few trophies I kept....I had great respect for Ken,” says Mel.
That same year Mel was a member of the Australia Team that went to New Zealand and defeated NZ in the Oceania 1980 Olympic Qualification Tournament. “I was at this stage one of the main scorers on the team....though people today probably remember me as a defensive specialist,” says Mel. At the end of 1979 the Australian Team with Mel a member undertook a ten game tour in the USA against College teams.
Mel was named to the Australian Team for the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.
He remembers the Games in different ways. “I remember the boycott and Lindsay telling us we had to make up our own minds whether we would follow the US and others and boycott the Games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan ....but we decided to go. I also remember the Games as the moment when my role on the team and perhaps my role in teams from that time on changed. Ian Davies emerged from the US to make our team and he was a scorer and took over my role as the shooting forward on the team and I had to adjust to coming off the bench and playing a different role. It was not easy!”
Mel also remembers, as does all the team, the fiasco when Italy and Cuba contrived a seven point game that put the Aussies out of the top six for the tournament. The Australian Team secured 8th place, their best result at an Olympic Games to that time.
After the Olympics, Mel was unavailable in 1981 for the Australian Team due to an injury when the team did a six week tour of the USA and China.
Mel was selected on the Australian Team for the 1982 World Championships in Columbia. “I re-invented myself as a power forward on that team and I think I played my best basketball in Columbia. The team had a great tournament and I will never forget the overtime win over Brazil....the lights going out....getting off the floor...wondering what was happening (terrorism and security threats were abound in that tournament)...then getting back out there...defending the great Brazilian shooter Oscar Schmidt....it was all happening.....great memories!” The Australians went on to secure their equal best ever World Championship result with a 5th place.
In 1983 Mel made himself unavailable for the Australian Team as he opened his own printing business. By 1984 however he realised that he was still very young to be going into business, and he wanted more basketball so he contacted Coach Lindsay Gaze and told him he wanted back in. But by his own admission he was not physically fit and he was overweight. “I think most people thought I wouldn’t make the team. I was still playing with Frankston and before the team was selected I moved to Bendigo and played in the South Eastern Australian Basketball League (SEABL) and captained and coached the team and ran the marketing of the Club. However, somehow I made the team!” His selection raised a few eyebrows as he was out of the spotlight of the NBL and he was the first player from the SEABL to be chosen for an Australian Men’s Basketball Team let alone for an Olympic Games.
Mel enjoyed the 1984 LA Olympics and again felt with more luck and some better play at the right times the team could have got to the medals as the Soviets had boycotted the Olympics in retaliation for the US boycott in 1980 of the Moscow Olympics. “We played really well again and had great victories over Brazil and West Germany, lost a critical game to Silver Medallists Spain and then disappointingly lost to Uruguay,” he recalls. “I loved playing at the Forum, but was also disappointed that we didn’t get to play the USA and Michael Jordon,” says Mel. The Australians secured 7th place their best Olympic result to that time.
In 1985 Mel toured the USA with the Australian Team, and in 1987 moved to Canberra for family reasons, to start a printing business and to play with the Canberra Cannons under Coach Bob Turner. There was a lot now going on in his life and his commitment to basketball was divided. He did manage to play in the 1985 Oceania 1986 World Championships Qualifying Tournament, tour the USA for ten matches and play two games in Australia for the Australian Team but then he decided that he would not play for the National Team again because of injuries and work commitments.
Mel played for the Canberra Cannons in 1986, 1987 and 1988 winning the NBL Championship in 1988,and retired from basketball after that winning season to concentrate on his printing business.
In 1991 Mel made a brief coaching appearance as coach of the Cannons. “But I soon realised that coaching wasn’t really very rewarding financially and I really needed to concentrate on my printing business,” says Mel. He did continue some basketball, assisting in setting up programs for a number of years with Canberra Girls Grammar and with his daughters Michaela (who played in the Women’s National Basketball League...WNBL...winning two titles) and with hisdaughter Kirby (who played in the WNBL with Townsville Fire).
He has also kept connections to basketball through his printing business where he regularly donates printing to basketball including the BA and BNSW Halls of Fame.
Mel Dalgleish has come a long way from the talented long haired “rebel” player of his youth. His aggressive defence lists him as one of the best defenders in his era and perhaps any era, a consummate team man, a great rebounder and a player willing to sacrifice his own offensive talents for the betterment of the group.
Mel scores a lay-up for Australia against Colorado State (M. Dalgelish)
Mel Dalgleish on defence in the NBL (The Australian Basketballer/Cliff Russell)
(The Australian Basketballer Magazine/Lou D’Angelo)
(The Australian Basketballer/All Sport)