Perth Wildcats (1/3)

Formed in 1982 as the Westate Wildcats, the Wildcats became the first, and so far only, Western Australian club to compete in the NBL. The club was initially captained by Mike Ellis and comprised members of the Western Australian state team and several import players. In these early years the Wildcats played at Perry Lakes Stadium and struggled to make an impact on the league. In 1984 the Wildcats changed their name to the Perth Wildcats and in 1987 moved from Perry Lakes to the 5,000 seat Superdrome (now known as Challenge Stadium).

After signing a number of star players (including Cal Bruton, Tiny Pinder and James Crawford), the Wildcats not only made their first playoff appearance in 1987, but attained a Grand Final berth. Unfortunately for the Wildcats they lost this Grand Final series to the Brisbane Bullets. Despite this loss the 1987 season marked the beginning of 24 straight years of playoff appearances that still runs to this day.

The following years were not as successful on or off the court for the Wildcats. Significantly, the club was forced to deal with the shocking death of player Scott Fenton and his fiancée in a car accident during the 1989 season. In his memory, Scott Fenton's jersey (number 14) became the first to be retired by the club.

(extract from Wikipedia 2011)

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[Holden308]

Game 2 of the 1990 NBL GF Series saw the largest NBL GF crowd outside of Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. The crowd was 13,221

[MrEnsignharry]

awesome