Ian Davis #21- Sophomore at GHS
Ian Davies was a 1974 graduate of Galesburg High School. To say he was a “late bloomer” would be an understatement. He went from being cut from the 9th grade basketball team in 1970-1 year to becoming the leading scorer in the 1980 Olympics.
Ian was born in Australia to Fred and Joan Davies. Fred Davies was an Australian rules football legend. Fred was the captain and coach of Longford Football Club in the Northern Tasmanian Football Association. He later was selected into the Tasmanian Football HOF, was the first player selected to the Team of the Century, and had the Langford football field named for him. He died at 39 in 1961.
As much as Fred Davies was a sports legend in Australia, his Wikipedia page illustrates how much his son, Ian would come to be revered as a basketball player, “He (Fred) married Joan Mason in 1948 and was the father of the famous Tasmanian dual Olympic basketballer, Ian Davies.
After his father’s death, Ian at the age of ten and his mother moved to Galesburg to be near some of her relatives. She was related to the Indelicato family. Joan Davies was employed at both Joe the Tailor’s and Protexall. The widow worked long hours to make ends meet for Ian and her.
In the 1960’s, Galesburg was a small town where neighbors took care of each other. To help Joan Davies be able to work long hours, several families would watch over Ian. One family was the Johnson’s with two young boys about the same age- Robbie Johnson and Greg “Peach” Johnson. Robbie was two years older and Peach the same age.
Ian had countless suppers with the Johnson’s and many sleepovers. And the Johnson’s had basketball hoop that Ian spent countless hours working on his game. He got a late start in organized basketball but made up for it on the Johnson’s hoop.
Churchill 9th grade coach, Bob Morgan told reporter Mike Trueblood, “I cut him in 9th grade. He was very slender, small guy in 9th grade and I had a pretty good ball club.”
Peach Johnson related how Ian did not give up, “Ian would shoot with two pairs of gloves on in the snow and in stone cold winter, and still shot the lights out. He ultimately learned how to play the game of basketball in our backyard.”
He was on the JV team as a junior at GHS in 1972-3, playing for JV coach, Mike Owens. As a senior, he played on the varsity for Mike Owens, who became the head coach. As a senior, he was 6’4” and 150 pounds.
Davies senior year, the 1973-4 Streaks finished 16-7 and tied for the Western Big Six Conference championship. Davies was a starter for the ‘74 Streaks and played in all 23 games. The scoring for the Streaks that year was: Joe Swedlund 22.0ppg, Ollie Thierry 12.1ppg, Mark Wilson 11.9ppg, Ian Davies 10.7ppg, and Mike Campbell 6.7ppg.
Ian Davies shot 47% on 112 for 240 from the field, and 70% on 23 for 38 from the free throw line for the GHS varsity.
Davies grew to 6’7” while in college at Graceland. He led Graceland in scoring all four years. Davies averaged over 27 points per game each of his last three years of college. His senior year he was selected as the Iowa College Player of the Year. The voting for Iowa College Player of the Year included players from the University of Iowa, Iowa State and Drake. When Ian won the award, second place was Scot Thompson of Iowa. Ian was selected to the Graceland College HOF in 2019.
After graduation from Graceland, Ian played basketball in the CBA. The CBA was a professional league based mainly in the Midwest. Today it would be the equivalent of playing in the NBA G-League. At the end of the year, he received an invite from a Tasmanian pro team to come back to Australia to play.
After moving back, he surprised many by being selected to the Australian national team for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Ian did not just make the Olympic team, he led the entire Olympics in scoring with 29.3ppg. He again led all scorers in the World Cup games of 1982. He also played for Australia in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Davies was a star in the Australian National Basketball League, playing from 1980 thru 1990. Ian averaged 17.8ppg for his 11 year career. He was inducted into the NBL Hall of Fame after retirement.
During Ian’s time playing pro basketball in Australia, the league went from teams playing in front of 2,000 fans to eventually crowds of 12,000 fans. As one of the stars of the league, Davies played a significant role in the growth of popularity of basketball in Australia. Based on the value of currency then and currency today, Ian was making the equivalent of over $150k a year as a pro basketball player.
Ian Davies died in 2013 at the age of 57.
FOOTNOTE…
Ian Davies had one of the most impressive college basketball careers of any GHS graduate. He is one of the few Silver Streaks to go onto to play professional sports. And he may be the only GHS graduate to play in two different Olympics. Despite all these incredible athletic achievements, he has never been inducted into the GHS Athletic Hall of Fame. It should be noted that there are other Silver Streaks who have been inducted not for the GHS achievements but their athletic achievements after graduation. (Nomination forms are on the GHS Athletic website.)
WORDS OF TEAMMATES AND COACHES ABOUT IAN…
MARK WILSON- GHS VARSITY TEAMMATE
In junior high and high school, when most of us other players were having fun, chasing girls, etc., Ian was out shooting baskets, playing pickup games with gloves on after shoveling off the court.
Ian was the ultimate late bloomer. Didn't even make the GHS varsity team until our senior year, started at small forward, was a scrawny 6'-4" and averaged 10 ppg (4th leading scorer). If he would have been in HS anything near what he became, our good team would have been great! When he came home in the summer from Graceland, he was 6'-7" and a beast on the court. Had unlimited range or would take you off the dribble and dunk on you!
In my opinion, he had the most basketball success of any GHS basketball player ... played in 2 Olympics, led '80 Olympics in scoring, averaged 27ppg last 3 years at Graceland. If GHS HOF criteria include total life accomplishments and not just HS stats, he definitely should be in the HOF posthumously.
SCOTT KELLEY- GHS CLASS OF 1976
After my junior year, Mike Campbell, Ian Davies, Joe Swedund, and I got together everyday at noon and played 2 on 2 at the Covenant Church. Ian and Joe were just back from first year of college. The first day Mike and I figured that we would split up to make teams fair. Ian and Joe said,”No, you don’t get it. You are going to have to try to beat us.”
We had it handed to us early in the summer but gradually become more competitive. It was instrumental in our development as players and as teammates.
Ian was as good as any shooter I played with on the college level. He could have played with any college.
MIKE CAMPBELL- GHS CLASS OF 1976
IAN DAVIES- TOLD TO JAY REDFERN IN 1989
I think I was just a late bloomer. I got my chance my senior year in high school and when I got that opportunity, I improved every year.
I wasn’t good enough to make the Churchill team, but kept trying because I loved the game.
Mike Owens had a bit of faith in me and thought I had bit of potential.
MIKE OWENS- TOLD TO JAY REDFERN IN 1989
He was so skinny, he looked anemic. John (Thiel) and I decided we couldn’t give up on him because he could shoot so well. Ian was one of the finest outside shooters I ever coached.
LES RIDDLE- MELBOURNE PROFESSIONAL TEAM COACH
He was the best shooter in the world in his prime.
The following is story written by Jay Redfern in 1989….
Galesburg HS “Ponies” 1971-2 (Sophomore Year)
Ian Davies #21
Galesburg HS “JV’s” 1972-3 (Junior Year)
Ian Davies #20
Galesburg HS “Varsity 1973-4 (Senior Year)
Ian Davies- First in the Last Row
Graceland Basketball Team
#40 Robbie Johnson, #32 Ian Davies
Robbie Johnson & Ian Davies at Graceland
Graceland University Hall of Fame Induction- 2019
Induction into New South Wales HOF
The following was written by an Australian sports writer…
Tasmanian Basketball Icons and Legends - Ian Davies
The below is a fantastic article and tribute (from Australia's most prolific basketball writer Boti Nagy ) to one of Australia's greatest players and Tasmania's greatest ever basketball player IAN DAVIES who passed away 10 years ago this week (7th November, 2013) aged 57 years of age.
Basketball superstar Ian Davies changed the game in Australia for the better.
IAN Davies' death yesterday (7th November, 2013) in Hobart brought to a close an era in Australian basketball which saw the game emerge from tin-shed suburban stadia into entertainment centres across the nation.
Davies, a 196cm scoring freak with an unstoppable outside shot he released from behind his head, was the first in a new breed of Australian player who had everything his American counterparts possessed.
In fact in 1980 when Davies, an unheralded Tasmanian from Longford, a small farming town about 12km south of Launceston, burst onto the NBL scene, he became the first Aussie to draw packed houses wherever he played.
With a hybrid American accent, it was evident from Day One he had a story unlike any of his Tassie, US or Launceston Casino City teammates.
He had endured some fairly lean years growing up with basketball in the American mid-west, unwanted by the coach at Galesburg High School in Illinois, even though he regularly schooled team members in schoolyard scrimmages.
"I did not play on an organised team until I was 17, which was my senior year in high school," Davies said. "I can say I'm a self-made basketballer.
"My peers from 13 to 17 were playing in teams and I was not. I was just playing backyard.
"I got dropped from my high school team as a 16-year-old."
Eight years later, Davies would lead the scoring at the Moscow Olympic Games, delivering 29.9 points per game, becoming the second Australian to achieve the feat after Eddie Palubinskas in 1976.
"I just made it from all the practice I had on my own," Davies said. "The American coaches polished my skills up a bit."
Davies honed his skills in backyard games during freezing Illinois winters, believing those early days were the secret to his shooting success.
"We used to have to play with two or three pairs of pants on and two or three pairs of gloves," he said.
"You would get used to that and after you took your gloves off, it would come easy.
"Shooting requires a lot of fingertip control and after a while it just comes naturally. I have always been known for my range and can go out to 10m and still shoot accurately."
The only son of Joan and Fred Davies, Fred played VFL football for Carlton from 1948-50 before moving to Longford as a captain-coach.
Tragedy struck when Ian was five and his father died.
After struggling for five more years, Joan packed up and took her son and his older sister Helen to join relatives in the US.
Enrolled at Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa in 1974, Davies led the school in scoring for four years and in 1978 was voted Iowa College Player of the Year.
A Tasmanian journalist holidaying in the US stumbled across the Davies story, returned home to write it and Launceston reached out to him in December, 1979.
"I always wanted to come back to Tasmania," he said.
"It was a free ticket (home) and I could play the game as well."
Davies was an instant revelation, an Australian athlete who could shoot from virtually anywhere or so it seemed and could also get to the basket with venom.
"At his first Australian (national team) practice, we were all like: 'Who is this guy?' because we'd never seen anything like him before," said Peter Ali, a Moscow Olympics teammate and part-time roomie on the road.
"He was so hard to contain because he had that high release from behind his head.
"I used to try and crowd him and push him out further but it didn't seem to make much difference, because he could hit from just about anywhere."
Davies' reputation in the NBL quickly preceded him and when he hit Adelaide for the first time with Launceston to play West Adelaide Bearcats , he was going to draw a huge crowd.
But the 3000-capacity Apollo Stadium had a rock concert booked that night, meaning the match was at the tin-shed, three-court Bowden Stadium.
Bowden has since gone the way of Albert Park Stadium in Melbourne, Apollo, Forestville and the dodo, but at that time it was the home of the Bearcats whose playing-coach Ken Richardson was the best American in the NBL and his team included Ali, big Rick Hodges, Raymon Wood in fact a host of top South Australian basketballers, all at or about their prime.
West went on to play in the grand final in 1980, was back in the semi-finals the year after and won the championship in 1982. The nucleus of that champion was on show on Saturday, May 3 at Bowden.
Now Bowden was one of the original rinky-dink tin-shed stadia. If you got there late and more than 150 people showed up, you'd be standing peering over from one of the courts either side of the main centre-court.
If you were "media" and someone such as Bearcats GM Gordon Clamp was aware you were coming, you might warrant a spot at the end of one of the three decks of seating.
When I arrived at around 7:30pm for the 8 o'clock tip-off and couldn't find a carpark in the same postcode, I knew I'd only be getting in because I was "press".
The place was packed already, people everywhere, even hanging off the cobwebs.
Clamp managed to clear some space at the end of the bench, about three feet from where the baseline and sideline meet, right in the corner. Given the circumstances, it was a good spot.
And there was Davies, the game just seconds old before he stroked a missile from my very corner. And another.
And another. Then he was jumping over a pack for an offensive rebound, or showing terrific dexterity with the ball in the open court.
His tip-dunk over a pack just brought the house down. He was in everything and West had no answer for him as he went on to finish with 32 points.
Unfortunately for Davies, his supporting cast was not of West's calibre and it was only a matter of time before the Bearcats wore them down and won the contest 102-93.
But they never wore out Davies, who was still stroking bombs from the corners shots that had people literally swaying forward out of their seats to see where he was shooting from right to the very end.
He was special and it was recognised when he made the All*Star Five in his first season and the Moscow Olympic team.
A year later and with a substantially upgraded team, he took Launceston to the most unlikely of NBL championships.
"That was great because Tasmania had never won anything on a national level before and to win on national TV the whole state was behind us," he said.
"There were 800 people at the airport when we returned to Launceston that night."
Davies went on to play for Newcastle Falcons, Geelong Supercats and Sydney Kings, his 13 three-pointers in a game for the Falcons in 1985 standing as the all-time NBL record.
And that was in the third-game of a three-game road trip.
"He was just amazing with that shot," said his Boomers teammate Phil Smyth, who even lured Davies to play in the SA state league at Sturt.
They made the grand final in 1980-81 but lost both times to Davies' nemesis, Richardson and his Bearcats.
Somewhat ironically, Davies finally would unite with Richardson, playing for him when he coached Geelong.
But when the Sydney Kings were formed ahead of the 1988 NBL season, Davies immediately was identified as the type of player the new club needed to attract the attention of fans, sponsors and media alike.
Though the consistency of his early days was gone, he was still a huge hit in the harbour city and went on to amass 252 games at his four NBL clubs, scoring 4485 points.
In 2001, the NBL inducted him into its Hall of Fame and Basketball Australia honoured that induction within its own Hall.
Davies additionally represented Australia at the Los Angeles Olympics and at the 1982 and 1986 world championships.
Just as he had in Moscow, Davies led the scoring at the 1982 worlds in Colombia, averaging 23.4 points per game.
"Ian was from a different era," former Kings teammate and 1990 world championship Boomer Tim Morrissey said.
"He was at the tail end of his career when he played in Sydney but he still had a few great games.
"He trained hard, he played hard and he partied hard."
Gone at 57, he would want no better epitaph.
IAN DAVIES
January 29, 1956 November 7, 2013'
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