Thirty years after making Australian basketball history, the Rollers who won gold at the Atlanta 1996 Paralympic Games are getting the team back together.
Members of the 1996 team will reunite in Melbourne next weekend, where they’ll be honoured during the 2:15pm NWBL Finals game at the State Basketball Centre on Sunday, 23 August, with the wider Australian wheelchair basketball community there to celebrate alongside them.
It will mark three decades since the Rollers became the first Australian national basketball team to win gold at an Olympic or Paralympic Games, an achievement that remains one of the biggest moments in Australian basketball history.
Troy Andrews OAM PLY, Sandy Blythe OAM PLY, Orfeo Cecconato OAM, Ben Cox OAM, Stuart Ewin OAM, David Gould OAM PLY, Gerard Hewson OAM PLY, Tim Maloney OAM PLY, Nick Morris OAM, Richard Oliver OAM PLY, David Selby OAM and Troy Sachs OAM PLY were the 12 Rollers who brought home that historic gold after defeating Great Britain 78–63 in the final
The reunion will also be a chance to remember their late captain Sandy Blythe, who led the team during their historic run in Atlanta.
For Rollers great Troy Sachs, who was just 19 when Australia took the top step of the podium, having the team together again is a special part of the 30-year milestone.
“Coming back together, it’s going to be cool to see where the guys are, what they’re up to and what they’re doing,” Sachs said.
“I’m looking forward to seeing everyone together again.”
For Sachs and his teammates, there will be plenty to catch up on when they’re back together in Melbourne.
“Everyone goes their separate ways when you’re young and you’re making your way in the world,” he said.
“I was playing in the US and Europe, so I wasn’t around much in Australia because of my commitments overseas.”
But no matter where life took them afterwards, what they achieved together in Atlanta will always be something they share.
“Wheelchair basketball is what brought us together,” Sachs said.
The impact of the ’96 Rollers stretched well beyond Atlanta. Their breakthrough gold helped set a new standard for Australian wheelchair basketball and sparked a period of success for the Rollers on the international stage.
Their Atlanta triumph would become the first of four Paralympic medals for the Rollers, with the program going on to claim silver in Athens, gold in Beijing and silver in London.
Current Rollers Head Coach Brad Ness said the influence of the ’96 team is still very much part of the program today.
“They showed us what is possible,” Ness said.
“They weren’t even considered a medal chance in ’96, and they just got on a tear in that tournament and won it, and then gave everyone else coming after the belief that if they can do it, why not us?”
“We always say we’re just custodians of this singlet, by those that came before us and those that will come after us, and I think that 1996 team was probably the pinnacle part of that.”
Throughout the coming week, Basketball Australia will turn the clock back to Atlanta ’96, sharing stories and memories from the Rollers’ historic gold medal run.
Follow along on the Rollers’ Instagram and Facebook throughout the week for more.
