Basketball Australia attended the event with one of the highlights of the night being the celebration of 50 years of Paralympic sport, with the first Paralympics held in Rome in 1960.

Seven Australian athletes attended the Rome Games in 1960, which also saw the first wheelchair basketball team compete.

Although the team didn’t medal in Rome, they did pioneer a tradition of Australian wheelchair basketballers competing proudly on the international stage, which, as we see now, has led directly to the Rollers and Gliders becoming a force on the international wheelchair basketball scene.

The Rome Paralympic Wheelchair basketball team, led by Kevin Coombs, featured Kevin Cunningham, Gary Hooper, Bill Mather-Brown, Bruno Moretti, and Chris O’Brian. 

Attached is a photo of the 6 athletes from the wheelchair basketball team and the only female Daphne Hilton together with Paralympians Troy Sachs, Grant Mizens and Gerry Hewson and Lorraine Landon.