Adelaide 36ers - Club History - 1980s - The Golden Era

The Golden Era

The Adelaide 36ers were born as the Adelaide City Eagles when they joined the NBL in 1982. Mike Osborne was appointed as team coach, Chris Stirling was captain and the team played out of the 3,000 seat Apollo Stadium. The Eagles performed well in their first season but missed the playoffs finishing in 7th place on the ladder with a 15-11 record. The championship was won that year be Adelaide's 'other' NBL team at the time the West Adelaide Bearcats who featured future 36ers in 1982 NBL MVP Al Green, Moscow Olympian Peter Ali and veteran guard Ray Wood.

The Adelaide City Eagles changed their name after the 1982 season to the Adelaide 36ers to reflect on the history of South Australia's proclamation in 1836. Mike Osborne continued as head coach while David Winslow was named team captain. The 36ers once again missed the NBL playoffs in 1983 finishing 6th on the ladder with an 11-11 record.

The 1984 NBL season saw the first time the 36ers would reach the NBL finals, finishing the regular season in 3rd place in the Western Division with a 16-7 record. The team lost their Elimination Final to the Nunawading Spectres 108-101. Following the season, Mike Osborne was not retained as coach.

Former Australian Boomer and 1964 Olympic representative Ken Cole was signed as coach of the Adelaide 36ers for the 1985 NBL season. Under Cole, the 36ers became one of the leagues premier teams. Import players including 6'9" (206 cm) centre Bill Jones, New York-born combo guard Al Green (who had been drafted by the San Diego Chargers as a Defensive back in the 1979 NFL Draft despite not playing football) and an NBL rookie in 24 year old forward from Philadelphia, Mark Davis, combined with local players Darryl Pearce, team captain Peter Ali, young gun Mike McKay, and veteran Ray Wood to help Adelaide to a 20-6 record and second on the regular season ladder behind the Brisbane Bullets. The team had a bye going into the semi-final where they easily defeated for the Newcastle Falcons 151-103 at home in what is still a record semi-final win in the NBL. In the last single game NBL grand final ever played, Adelaide were up against the Brisbane Bullets on the Bullets' home court (Sleeman Sports Centre). Going into the final period the game the Bullets' were leading 78-74 but a 42-21 last period in favor of the home team saw Adelaide fail to win their first grand final going down 95-120.

1985 would see Al Green set a single season points per game record for the 36ers when he scored 31.0 ppg in 28 games played (the record still stands as of 2012-13). Green, who Ken Cole chose to move to Point guard and leave Darryl Pearce at off guard, adjusted to his new role running the teams offense and also led the team in assists for the first time averaging 5.1 per game. Hos form saw him selected to his second All-NBL First Team after also winning selection in 1981 while with West Adelaide. For his efforts during the season, 19 year old guard Mike McKay was awarded the NBL's Rookie of the Year award (despite having already played two seasons with West Adelaide in 1983 and 1984). McKay played all 28 games, averaging 12.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.

1986 would see the Adelaide 36ers win the first of their four NBL championships. Bill Jones replaced Peter Ali as captain and 6'6" (199 cm) forward Dwayne Nelson returned to the team after a year away, while Ken Cole would win the NBL Coach of the Year award after guiding the team to a 24-2 record, 5 more wins than the second placed Canberra Cannons. The 36ers were undefeated at home during the regular season going 13-0, the first time a club had gone unbeaten at home in league history. The two games the 36ers lost in the regular season were both last second shots against the West Sydney Westars and Coburg Giants respectively. Those two losses ultimately denied Adelaide a perfect season but earned the team the nickname "The Invincibles" (the nickname was given by Adelaide's multi-award winning basketball journalist Boti Nagy). Again earning a bye into the semi-finals, Adelaide this time accounted for the Illawarra Hawks 116-92 before moving onto their second grand final in a row, this time to be played over three games instead of the single game that had been in place previously. Once again facing the Brisbane Bullets, the 36ers won the first game of the series 122-119 in overtime at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Back home in Adelaide the 36ers would lose only their third game of the year (and first at home) when they lost game two 83-104. The final game played at home in front of a packed Apollo Stadium saw the Adelaide 36ers win their first championship with a 113-91 victory. Mark Davis finished second in the NBL in total rebounds (15.8 per game), won the NBL Grand Final MVP award and also won selection in the All NBL First Team. The 36ers average winning margin in 1986 was 17.8 points and 25 years later during the 2011-12 NBL season, the 1986 36ers were named the leagues greatest ever team on the NBL's official website.

Despite the on court success there was controversy at the club during the 1986 season with coach Ken Cole suspended towards the end of the regular season by the club board over his smoking of marijuana joint during a road trip to Brisbane, a situation that Cole was open about and never denied. Indeed, he stated that he was recommended it by his family doctor as a way of dealing with health problems and physical pain. After the story was broken in one of Adelaide's daily newspaper's at the time, The Advertiser, Cole was suspended by the club for the last two games and the team was coached by his assistant Don Shipway. Before the playoffs, the players got together and went to the club board demanding Cole's return, going so far as to tell the board that they would refuse to play unless Cole was coaching them. Under immense pressure from not only the players but the general public of Adelaide who supported Cole despite his admitted use of the drug, the club board relented and Cole returned for the 1986 playoffs, though it was known that he would be sacked over the incident at the end of the season regardless of a championship win or not.

Ken Cole, the 1986 NBL Coach of the Year and the 1986 championship winning coach was replaced for the 1987 NBL season by former Nunawading Sectres import guard Gary Fox, who would continue the work started by Cole by coaching Adelaide to their second minor premiership in a row with a 21-5 record. For the third season running the team hard earned a bye to the semi-finals where this time they would face the Perth Wildcats who were in their first ever playoffs. In a major upset the defending NBL champions lost the series 1-2 to the Wildcats. They won 99-98 in Perth but then lost games two and three 99-101 and 93-103 on their home court. After winning the Grand Final MVP award in 1986, Mark Davis would continue to have a major impact on the NBL when he jointly won the leagues MVP award with Brisbane's Leroy Loggins. Davis also led the league in rebounding averaging 17.8 for the season, the first of two times he would do so in his career.

Adelaide finished with their third minor premiership in a row and the second under Gary Fox after finishing with a 19-5 record in 1988 but would again be beaten Semi-Finalists. Bill Jones, who was still playing with the club, was replaced as team captain by Australian Boomers representative Darryl Pearce. Against the Ken Cole coached Falcons in Newcastle during 1988, Darryl Pearce would set a still standing single game scoring record for the 36ers when he scored 48 points including 11 of 14 three point attempts. 1988 also saw 6'10" (208 cm), Adelaide born centre and AIS attendee Mark Bradtke make his NBL debut for the 36ers. Playing mostly as a backup centre to team captain Bill Jones, Bradtke played in 23 games, averaging 7.4 points and 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game.

Both Pearce and Bradtke won selection for Australia at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, helping the team to finish 4th after being defeated 49-78 in the Bronze Medal playoff game by the USA. Bradtke's selection at age 19 making him the youngest player at the time to ever represent Australia in Basketball at the Summer Olympics (Bradtke turned 20 during the games).

1989 was Gary Fox's last season with the Adelaide 36ers and it saw the team drop to 6th on the regular season ladder with a 15-9 record. Bill Jones left the team to join former coach Ken Cole in Newcastle and was replaced as an import player by 1983 NCAA West Coast Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year and former Los Angeles Lakers draft pick, 6'10" (209 cm) Orlando Phillips. The team had a down year by its recent standards and Adelade was eliminated in the Elimination Final by their playoff nemesis, the Perth Wildcats. Mark Bradtke's star continued to rise with the Olympic representative winning the NBL's Most Improved Player award. Bradtke averaged 15.0 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game over the 24 game season.