1998 Championships – Adelaide 36ers & Adelaide Lightning – 25 Year Reunion

In 1998 Adelaide was described as ‘Title Town’ with the Crows, Thunderbirds, 36ers and Lightning all winning their respective Crowns.

We are pleased to announce that we will be celebrating the 25 year anniversary of the Adelaide Lightning and Adelaide 36ers Championships at our Christmas charity luncheon on the 15th of December at The Highway.

To mark the occasion of the 1998 titles, we are thrilled to have secured the coaches of the day, Jan Stirling and Phil Smyth as our guest speakers to re-live arguably the most successful period for SA teams in National League competitions. Adelaide was dubbed ‘Title Town’ when both of our basketball teams saluted along with the Thunderbirds in netball, and the Adelaide Crows in the AFL.

Jan had a very successful playing career clocking over 160 WNBL games for the North Adelaide Rockets leading to inclusion in the National Team throughout the 1970’s and representing the Opals at the 1975 World Championship Team that went to Columbia. She was always considered an astute point guard and no one was surprised with Jan’s transition into coaching where her record of four WNBL Championships and multiple international medals over an 8 year stint as the coach of the Opals (two Olympic silver, one gold and one bronze World Championship, one gold Commonwealth Games). Most recently Jan has been Executive GM of High Performance at Basketball Australia and has been inducted into the Basketball Australia and FIBA Halls of Fame.

Phil played over 350 NBL games for St Kilda, Canberra, Adelaide and Sydney over 14 seasons winning three championships from 5 grand final series. A four time Olympian he was the mainstay of the Boomers team over a 16 year international career where he was widely recognised as the premier point guard in the world. During his playing career Phil dabbled in coaching in a role at the AIS in Canberra and then moved seamlessly into the Head Coach role with the 36ers winning three championships over an 11 year period.

This promises to be a fantastic event with great company, prices, auction items, raffles, and fantastic stories to be heard, all while supporting youth Basketball in the state. Organise a table or get your single tickets here.

Ticket price includes a 2-course meal, and drinks available for purchase from the bar.