Basketball News Clips - 1960s & '70s

Part II of the article presented basketball newsclips for the 5-year period 1969 through 1973. This chapter concludes below.

1974 * The Dominica Amateur Basketball Association (DABA) is established, taking over the administration of basketball at the national level from the Basketball Sub-Committee of the Dominica Amateur Sports Association (DASA).

• DABA elects its first President in the person of Wilmoth LeBlanc who replaced the Chairman of the DASA Basketball Sub-Committee, Reginald St. Havis Shillingford.

• DABA stages an all-day fund-raising Marathon Basketball Match, with two teams (Whites and Colours) and scores of players participating; Whites emerges victorious with 955 Pts. The three highest scorers were Trevor Knight (Whites) with 168 Pts, and Clem Jno. Baptiste and Charles James (Colours) scoring 145 and 126 Pts respectively. Players sought and obtained sponsorship from members of the general public, based mainly on the number of points scored in the match.

• Pros, in only their second season in the Basketball League, becomes the first team to deny the seemingly invincible Cardinals a championship, and the first out-of-town team to step on to the winners' podium when they were crowned 1974 Basketball League Champions. That year, Electrons rubbed more salt into Cardinals' wounds by capturing the Knockout Championship and leaving 'Caroni' trophy-less that season.

1975 * Dominica participates in the inaugural Windward Islands Basketball Championships which were staged in St. Lucia and won by Grenada.

Dominica places 2nd, amassing a total of 219 points in their 3 games, and blew out St. Vincent and St. Lucia by 70 points and 39 points respectively, but lost narrowly to Grenada by 4 points.

Five of the 11 players selected on to the first-ever Windwards Basketball Team, as well as the Coach, are Dominicans.

1976 * Dominica crowned champions in the 2nd Windward Islands Basketball Tournament which was played between three teams at the Windsor Park in Roseau. Dominica defeated St. Lucia 62-41 and St. Vincent 77-73.

• Dominica's application for membership of FIBA, the Federation Internationale de Basketball Amateur is approved during the tenure of DABA's second President, 'Ron' Green. The application had been submitted during LeBlanc's presidency.

1977 * Dominica's first female basketball team, Pioneers is formed and is assigned initially to compete against all-male teams in the Junior Division until a Women's Division is introduced in the very early '80s.

• Pioneers registers their first victory when they defeated DGS Jets 28-19. Alice Jno. Jules may have scored all of the ladies' points.

1978 * Pros registers the highest score ever in a league match to that point, extinguishing Starlights with a mammoth score-line of 136-58. Also in that match, possibly the highest player-score to be made in the league to that date was credited to Lambert Henderson (now deceased); his personal score equalled that of Pros' opponents.

• Since Cardinals appeared on the scene twelve years prior and went on to capture 7 double-championships to date (1968 through 1973, 1975) Flames capture both League and Knockout Championships and becomes the third team to perform the 'double' in local basketball league history.

Interestingly, during the two previous seasons these two teams "exchanged" championships, with Flames winning the League Championship and Cardinals the Knockout in 1976, then Cardinals regaining the League Championship and Flames snatching the Knockout from their rivals in 1977.

• Most Valuable Player for the 1978 season, Pros' Lambert Henderson (Deceased) records a gigantic total of 476 Points in the Division I League, averaging 36.61 points per game (PPG). He is followed by George Bruney of Ambassadors with an average of 33.07 PPG, and Trevor Knight of Cougars who averaged 26.16 PPG. Cougars were formerly Cardinals up to 1977, but subsequently reverted to Cardinals after only two seasons.

Remarks: The second in the series of local basketball newsclips will present information from the 1980s and 1990s. Information presented above was sourced from archived newspapers.

Photo Caption: DOMINICA'S Team, winners of 2nd Windward Islands Basketball Tournament, 1976

STANDING (L-R): Wilmoth LeBlanc (Coach), George Andrew, Charles Roberts, Alphonso Etienne, Trevor Knight, Clem Jno. Baptiste. STOOPING (L-R): Henry Shillingford, Augustus St. Hilaire, Peter Skerrit, Oliver Burton, Emanuel Loblack