Eagles Basketball Club celebrating its 75th anniversary

The Eagles Basketball Club is set to celebrate its 75th anniversary this year and club stalwart Ron Tape has named some of his greatest players in Eagles history. See which basketball legends represented the club here.

Eagles play Saints in Margaret St in 1955 when basketball was played during the Carnival of Flowers street carnival in the 1950s and 1960s.

One of proudest basketball clubs in Toowoomba is ready to celebrate its history with the Eagles Basketball Club holding a 75th anniversary reunion at the Drayton Bowls Club on November 2.

The club boasts an incredible history with some of Queensland basketball’s all-time greats representing the club during the glory days of Toowoomba basketball in the 1980s and 90s.

Ron Tape is a stalwart of the club and served as president of the club for 20 years between the 80s and 2000s and shared some of the biggest highlights in the club’s history.

“The most outstanding was when Pop Dickerson came to town and played for Eagles,” Tape said.

Toowoomba basketball legend Pop Dickerson.

“He revolutionised the game and we became more professional as a club.

“He turned things around … but the highlight of the club was when John Rillie went to America.

“He came back and played for Australia in the Olympics, then assistant coach of Australia and now head coach of Perth.

“He would be the most prominent figure in the club over the years.”

Rillie and Dickerson were not the only players to have made their mark on the club, with several other talented basketballers representing Eagles over the years.

John Rillie, Head Coach of the Wildcats talks to his players during the round three NBL match between Tasmania Jackjumpers and Perth Wildcats. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)

“There was David Blades, who went to North Queensland and played for Townsville in the NBL – he went from here up to North Queensland,” Tape said.

David Blades in action for Townsville.

“Peter Dean, he made Queensland teams and there’s been a lot of junior players come through as far as women came through.

“My daughter (Melissa Gurney) she played from under-14 to under-20 for Queensland.

“Kellie Holt did the same thing, she played for the (Toowoomba) Mountaineers but then Melissa went to the States and played for Southern Florida University.

“She made the Australia State Schools team that toured to China.

“Dave Nelson played for Eagles when he came here, he captain coached one of the teams and Dave also was president for one year.

“Michael Ingram, he played for Eagles, David Hopkins played for Eagles.

“Peter Rillie was one of the best players running around in Toowoomba and was unlucky not to go to Melbourne or somewhere.

“He held his own against all of the touring teams that came to Toowoomba.”

In terms of individual seasons or moments that stood out, it was a time where the Eagles were such a juggernaut and would split the club in two to make the competition more competitive for other teams.

“The best competition was when we split the Eagles club up into Eagles Red and Eagles White,” Tape said.

“I coached Eagles Red and Pop Dickerson was the captain and Dave Nelson coached Eagles White and we split our players up and some of those finals were as good as you’ll ever see, they were down to the last minute.”

Today, the club is a junior based association with 167 registered players across 21 teams.

There were 18 teams which made semi-finals in 2024, with the under-15 boys’ Division 1 Maroon, under-15 boys’ Division 2 Black and under-15 boys’ Division 3 Harristown State High School teams winning premierships.

RSVP for the anniversary reunion is due by October 23.