IF the Illawarra Hawks club was a fictional character, then surely it would be the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail - a battler who dismisses a lopped off arm as "just a flesh wound."
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Even when King Arthur screams at him "look ya stupid bastard you've got no arms left" the Black Knight fights on. Arthur could represent the feeling of various NBL executives over the years wondering why that little battler won't quit.
Even as Arthur calls it a "draw" and rides off, the Knight - by now just a torso - implores him to come back, threatening to bite his legs off. Is it a tribute of sorts to famous Python Terry Jones who passed this week... perhaps.
Still, the Black Knight's tustle with King Arthur is an apt metaphor for the Hawks' journey, particularly over the last two decades. It's ironic, given much of that time has seen the club begging or a "white knight" to emerge.
These white knights have come and gone, with varying levels of success and infamy, as the club continues a perennial fight for survival outweighed only by its perennial refusal to lie down.
It's been on the canvas a few times - looked as out as Tyson Fury did when floored by Deontay Wilder in their heavyweight superbout last year - but it continues to rise, largely at the behest of its loving fans and community.
It seemingly faces the same task at present given reports emerging about Simon Stratford's tentative hold on ownership of the club. It's understandably prompted a "here we go again" sigh among fans but it's unlikely this circumstance presents the doomsday scenario that it once did.
If you look through The Illawarra Mercury archives, it quickly becomes apparent the club has come much closer to death's door. It's worth taking a stroll through the work of Mercury writers, in particular one of the sport's greatest scribes Tim Keeble who was - with Editor Stuart Howie - instrumental in multiple campaigns to save the Hawks.
Most of the struggles have come from the club's position delicately balanced as regional player in a national league, going through various private and public ownership models since what could be dubbed the truly 'professional era' ushered in when the club first moved from the Snakepit to the WEC.
That came under the ownership of businessman John Carson who bought a 25 per cent stake in the club in January 1998, his $250,000 stake saving the club from ruin.
He faced some resistance to his bid for full ownership of club, with Mercury writer Mike Driscoll reporting on April 30, 1998:
The survival of the Illawarra Hawks as a National Basketball League franchise could rest with accepting an offer from chairman John Carson to buy out the debt-ridden club.
Carson already owns 25 per cent and has made an offer for a controlling share in a bid to save the club from spiralling debts. The Hawks are due to move to the Wollongong Entertainment Centre for the Summer League in October, signalling a new era, but right now the club's future is at stake.
"I have offered to take a controlling share in the club because my main priority is to make sure that basketball continues at a national level in Wollongong," Carson said.
"The Hawks have a proud 20-year tradition as a foundation member of the NBL... they have survived through some very tough times but now we have reached a point where we have to look at how we can meet the challenges of professional sport in an increasingly competitive environment."
The Mercury dedicated the masthead editorial of the same edition to the issue under the headline: Hawks must move with the times.
THE Illawarra Hawks basketball club clearly has reached a crisis point - ironically just months before it is due to move into a magnificent new facility at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre.
As The Mercury reports today, the club is in a deep financial hole.... Chairman John Carson, who helped the club financially when he took a 25 per cent share in January, is prepared to step in again and take a controlling interest.
That would clear the debts and set the club on a financially independent footing.
The NBL currently is celebrating its 20th season, and Illawarra is the only club still operated by its local association. All the others have gone to private owners or consortiums.
The IBA is justly proud of its history, and the way it has battled through the tough times to keep afloat over so many years. But the fact that it is the only one of its kind left - and in financial difficulties - must contain a message.
The IBA can't expect the Carson offer to stay on the table for long. He has offered the association a financial lifeline that it is hard to imagine would be repeated.
Carson ultimately took ownership of the club, its first step into privatisation. It saw the Hawks move from the Snakepit to the WEC and an era of relative stability.
Keeble summed up that mood in the October 8, 1998 edition in an article headlined: Thunderstruck Hawks hit the court.
Wollongong Hawks owner John Carson took one look at the club's fierce new mascot and summed up rekindled optimism within the club.
"It's a hawk with attitude...this team is worthy of top four contention. They guys have to aim high."
The era saw the club's only championship in 2001 under Brendan Joyce - a strong backer of Carson and vice versa. However, as the Hawks have been reminded of constantly over the years, even white knights don't have bottomless pits of money.
After seven years Carson sold the club back to a consortium of owners but retained ties as one of 20 shareholders, Mercury writer Paul Suttor reported on May 10 2003:
The Wollongong Hawks will have new owners for the next National Basketball League season after John Carson yesterday announced he was relinquishing control of the club. Carson will retain a share in the club's ownership along with as many as 19 other stakeholders.
"When I took over the club in 1997, I gave myself five years and set some goals, one of which was to win a championship," Carson said.
"We've achieved that, as well as many other goals we set, and I've exceeded my five-year plan."
Those ownership stakes were quickly snapped up and, having ridden out the hard times, the club looked set to prosper back in community hands. Ultimately, it ushered in era of almost fatal instability.
Club legend Chuck Harmison resigned as chief executive the following year. His replacement Peter Rowe quit after three months while Terry Ryan also walked in January 2005.
It again took the club back to the brink, with Keeble reporting on January 27:
While the Wollongong Hawks board continue to paint a rosy picture, internal squabbling which culminated in Tuesday's shock resignation of general manager Terry Ryan is threatening to bring the club to its knees.
It proved a telling premonition. A ownership shake-up in early 2006 saw ownership rest in the hands of seven of the original 16 shareholders, a process that gave the club a hefty cash injection but put little dent in their overall woes.
Joyce was sacked by the club at the end of the year and the club's finest player Glen Savile departed for arch-rivals Sydney, with Keeble reporting on March 28, 2007:
Glen Saville's days as a Wollongong Hawk are over. The 31-year-old told Hawks fans the news they were dreading yesterday afternoon. After a largely miserable 13th and final season in Wollongong, the club's leader in games played and points scored saw the writing on the wall.
"I just think as a professional athlete it's time for me to move on," Saville said.
"Some things that have happened in this club in the last season or so, obviously with (former coach) Brendan (Joyce) moving on and some other things have made me think about a few things."
Things deteriorated further and, when IMB sought to end its eight-year run as naming rights sponsor The Mercury loudly reported on December 14, 2007:
Hawks face NBL oblivion.
The Wollongong Hawks are facing an unprecedented financial crisis and could be extinct by the end of the 2007-08 National Basketball League season.
After battling to stay afloat for the past few years, the Hawks are succumbing to the same financial pressures that sounded the death knell for the Wollongong Wolves and Illawarra Steelers. If the Hawks die, the region will lose its last true local team.
In an op-ed in the same edition, Keeble opined: Without a cashed up "white knight", Wollongong will not survive.
With the club on its knees, board members and newly appointed Mercury Editor Stuart Howie came together to launch 'Operation Rebound' an appeal to the community to raise $1 million to keep the club alive.
The situation looked dire with Keeble reporting on December 18:
The Wollongong Hawks's fight for survival has gone from bad to worse literally overnight, with the club no certainty to see out the 2007-08 season.
Hopes of securing a major sponsorship deal fell through yesterday, leaving the Wollongong board with few options to discuss at last night's crisis meeting.
"There's nobody out there at the moment. We don't have any white knight," Hawks director Richard Clifford said.
"It's still our intention to get through the season but we can't give any guarantees on that. We're needing as much support from the community as we can possibly get."
On January 20, The Mercury front page featured cartoonist Vincent O'Farrell's famous 'I Want You' Hawks poster in support of the fight The Friends of the Hawks group, players and fans set up shop in Crown Street Mall asking for support and money with an extended deadline of January 31 looming to secure a spot in the following season's competition.
Clifford told the Mercury he expected it to "go right down to the wire" after a request for a second three-week extension was knocked back by the NBL who imposed a deadline of 5pm February 4 to sign the Commitment to Compete form. The Mercury's coverage on that day was hopeful if not optimistic, with Keeble writing:
The Wollongong Hawks are still no certainty to sign the NBL's Commitment to Compete form by today's 5pm deadline.
Despite increasing speculation the club was all but over the line in its highly publicised battle for survival, Hawks director Richard Clifford described this morning's discussions with potential new shareholders as "critical."
The NBL has extended the original December 31 deadline twice and has demanded a final answer in writing by this afternoon's close of business. If the form is not signed and submitted by 5pm, the league's foundation club will be forced to fold and hand over its playing license.
And then came the miracle (or at least people thought at the time). The front page of Mercury's February 5, 2008 edition featured O'Farell's 'V FOR VICTORY' front page - a sequel to his call to arms effort. As Keeble wrote inside:
More than seven weeks of anxiety and heartache ended in relief for the Wollongong Hawks yesterday after the club officially committed to the 2008-09 NBL season.
Faced with a 5pm deadline to sign the league's Commitment to Compete form, Hawks shareholders met yesterday afternoon before club director Richard Clifford emerge with the news every Wollongong fan wanted to hear.
"We've pulled through. The form is signed and the existing shareholders have agreed to sign on to 2008-2009."
It's a draining saga to read over before you contemplate that it was really just the start of the battle. If the Hawks previous woes had been down to its own financial management issues, their next battle had plenty to do with the NBL trying to get a grip on theirs.
A year after cheating death, the goalposts were moved dramatically when the league produced it's 'NewNBL' blueprint. After years of watching teams - not the Hawks of course - fold the league imposed a strict criteria for entry into the 2009-10 season.
It required clubs to have $500,000 in working capital and - the kicker - a $1 million bank guarantee. Straight out of the gate it looked a bridge too far, some even suspected it was by design.
The feeling was that the time had come. Some understandably could not stomach another tooth and nail fight so soon after cheating death the first time. The writing was on the wall.
The Mercury on February 4 - a year to the day of the club's previous Houdini act - published a death notice on its front page; RIP Wollongong Hawks, 1979-2009. Inside the headline ran: After 31 seasons, the dream is over.
Mercury writer Chris Roots wrote:
Like the Steelers and Wolves before them, the Wollongong Hawks yesterday succumbed to the financial reality of being a little in the big pond of a national competition.
Wollongong's last national sporting team will not exist next season. The ownership group has decided not to apply for a place in the NewNBL in 2009-10.
If the club had been on death's door a year earlier, it had crossed over. A bumper February 13 edition proclaimed 'We've had a ball' and urged all fans to get out for one last lap. In secret though, skipper Mat Campbell - the club's current general manager - had other ideas.
"I'd spoken to some people behind the scenes before the last game of the season to come up with some sort of plan to try and save the team," Campbell told The Mercury in 2017.
"We didn't want to go ahead and launch Save the Hawks until after that final game had happened just in case it didn't get up. I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to come and say goodbye to the Hawks and celebrate it for what it was.
"Even for me, I treated that game as the farewell game. I had some ideas about how to move it forward in that community model but it was a bit of a pipe dream at that stage."
It's a story far better known than the club's aforementioned previous dances with death, with the community and sponsors quickly raising the $500k needed to work with and put together a community ownership model. The problem proved the $1 million bank guarantee.
Campbell couldn't get anyone to bite. The Hawks were already 'dead' by then.
With the NBL's deadline looming, Campbell made an 11th hour pitch to mining magnate Arun Jagatramka of Gujarat NRE, who miraculously came through with the all-important guarantee.
On March 31, Campbell was pictured on the front page of The Mercury with Jagatramka under the headline: Hawks from slum dogs to millionaires. Inside Keeble wrote:
The Wollongong Hawks are back from the brink after miraculously securing a million-dollar bank guarantee with moments to spare. As the second wound down towards the 3pm deadline yesterday, Indian businessman Arun Jagatramka answered the Hawks's SOS call for a white knight to rescue the club from oblivion.
Today was a huge day, it was D-Day. There was no more tomorrows, no more extensions," Save the Hawks campaign head Mat Campbell said last night.
"I don't think it's really sunk in yet... I wasn't sure if I was dreaming but it was really happening."
It was movie script stuff - something the journos involved might get to some day. The Hawks current ownership predicament does not have the same movie script ring to it but a stroll through the Merc's archives show the club has certainly come through a lot worse.
Jagatramka had his own other issues - as Hawks fans have learned, white knight's are typically renters not buyers. The next to come along was telco millionaire James Spenceley.
The Hawks faithful have come to be wary of messiahs, and those fears seemed realised when the Mercury front page on March 3 2015 reported that the club had been placed into voluntary administration just a year into Spenceley's ownership.
In circumstances similar to what brought the club unstuck in 2007, the withdrawal of major sponsor Wollongong Coal was the telling factor, with the club again facing 28-day deadline to avoid demise.
The general manager Kim Welch seemed wary of such sentiment, telling Mercury writer Mitch Cohen that the club wasn't "asking fans to save the Hawks again." In the end, sponsors were smoked out and the club survived, though a debt to the NBL remains.
It's the major issue that's put current boss Simon Stratford - who moved from minority to majority owner in purchasing Spenceley's share in February 2018 - at odds with the league.
Here we go again... and Hawks fans are entitled to think it. Looking back at the history though, it's not necessarily a case of history repeating. For, through all the Hawks survival sagas, the NBL's own have run parallel.
It was fighting its own battle for survival through the noughties, which is partly what the NewNBL plan was all about. At the time Spenceley purchased the Hawks, the league was without a television deal and bleeding money.
Our greatest NBL player Andrew Gaze was even suggesting the league should go on hiatus for a year to properly rebuild. That's when another telco (multi)millionaire named Larry Kestleman stepped in.
The league had its own white knight and, unlike those the Hawks have typically had, he's hanging around for a long while. With the league now soaring as it is, there's still enough there to think the Hawks will be to - with other owners.
Given what the club has come back from in the past, this is really small fry. If you really want to understand how, or why, the club has kept rising from the ashes it's probably best to ask the person with the longest unbroken association with the club through its days in the crosshairs; current assistant coach Eric Cooks.
He was there as a player when Carson moved the club from the Pit to the WEC. He was an assistant to championship-winner Brendan Joyce, was head coach through the two toughest seasons the club endured. He was an assistant to Gordie McLeod and Rob Beveridge to now being on Matt Flinn's staff.
When asked in 2017 - the club's 40th unbroken year the league - by Mercury writer Mitch Cohen what it was that had kept the club here, Cooks said:
"We feel like we are the Aussie battlers because we always find a way to overcome it," Cooks said of the ownership changes.
"Since I have been here we have pretty much closed the doors three times, but the reason we are still involved is because of this community. We are the last remaining foundation club because of it.
"We might not have the biggest budget or the biggest sponsors but what we do have is a committed community that want to see us out there and always find a way."
As the white knights come and go, may the NBL's black knight continue to hold its ground.