In the years since taking part in the NBL's inaugural 1979 season, the club has passed through both community and private hands on a long journey relishing its "battler" tag.

The Mercury has also been there since day one, chronicling the trials and tribulations, including the last six years of private ownership.

That ended when former owner Simon Stratford placed the club into voluntary administration at the beginning of April, the former company now seemingly headed for liquidation.

It ends one of the more tumultuous periods in the club's history that began when Telco millionaire James Spenceley took ownership of the club in 2014.

It came at a time not too dissimilar to the first time the club fell into private hands in 1998 when then Hawks chairman and Illawarra businessman John Carson upped his 25 per cent share in the club to a controlling one.

It proved a success, with the club shifting from The Snakepit to the newly opened WIN Entertainment Centre and winning its first - and only - championship three years later.

The Hawks cheated death twice in the two years between 2008-2009 after Carson wound down his association with the club, ultimately staying afloat under a model of "community ownership."

When the next white knight came along members had reasonably high hopes for a similar outcome to the first, voting unanimously to put their faith in Spenceley who told The Mercury:

"To release control of something you are so passionate about is never easy and I am profoundly aware of the trust the members, fans and indeed the Wollongong community is putting in me."

The then 37-year-old BRW Young Rich list member outlined a bold vision for the club in a Q&A with longtime basketball scribe Tim Keeble on the eve of the 2014 season, saying:

"Our internal goal is to win a championship within three years."

After years of incredible success on a shoestring budget, reigning NBL Coach of the Year Gordie McLeod welcomed the move, a sentiment largely shared among the Hawks faithful.

However, it didn't take long for the relationship to sour. The signing of former Boomer Luke Nevill and return of stalwart Rhys Martin saw the club with 12 players it could not fit into a 10-man roster.

It ultimately cost long-serving big man and fan-favourite Dave Gruber his job, Keeble best describing fan reaction in an op-ed in October 2014.

"Any doubts about the Wollongong Hawks' new hardline approach to business were obliterated by Wednesday's sacking of fan favourite Dave Gruber," he wrote.

"He never won a title and is unlikely to have his jersey retired. But know this: no other player in Hawks history gave more than Grubes. At the very least, he deserves a much better farewell than the sad one he received."

The saga took its toll on the floor, with the Hawks slumping to a then franchise-low 6-22 record to finish last. A month later, Spenceley placed the club into voluntary administration following the loss of major sponsor Wollongong Coal.

"We're not asking Wollongong to save the Hawks again, we are simply informing the Illawarra community that, in order to survive, we need businesses to join us on an ongoing basis," then general manager Kim Welch told the Mercury in March 2015.

Administrator's reports found the club was in debt to the tune of more $1.1 million, with debts to the ATO, the NBL and various creditors.

The club faced being wound up before local businessman Tory Lavalle came on board as a major sponsor through his company Multi Civil and Rail. It saved the club, but players and staff were still out thousands of dollars.

It ultimately prompted McLeod to end his professional association with the club, telling The Mercury in June of that year that the values of the ownership group and his own were "no longer in alignment."

The new company was established in 2015, returning to its original Illawarra Hawks branding, with Spenceley still majority owner and Stratford a minority partner.

The club subsequently hired championship-winning coach Rob Beveridge, who leveraged that status to recruit two league MVP's in Kevin Lisch and Kirk Penney, as well as All-NBL First Team centre AJ Ogilvy.

The Hawks went on a run to the finals on the back of a crowd-pleasing high-octane offense, with Lisch winning both MVP and Defensive Player of the Year honours.

Ultimately, an untimely ankle injury to Lisch in the middle of the semi-final series brought the Hawks undone in a 2-1 loss to Perth. The club subsequently failed to come to terms with Lisch for the following season, seeing him snapped up by arch-rivals Sydney.

Kiwi great Penney also returned for a New Zealand swansong, leaving Beveridge to rebuild a roster that saw him add young-guns Mitch Norton and Nick Kay from the folded Townsville Crocs.

Like McLeod before him, Beveridge's relationship with the club's ownership was also tested, but the Hawks still managed to reach a grand final series where they were swept by a Bryce Cotton-led Wildcats.

Then, after two seasons, Spenceley decided to relinquish his majority share in the club, with minority partner Stratford taking sole ownership.

"Simon has a good vision of what path he wants the club to go down now," Spenceley said in February 2018.

"He has a lot more time and energy to put into it as he has done over the past few years. We have achieved a lot and the foundations are a lot better than they were when we first started."

It saw Norton and Kay depart, with the Hawks missing the finals for the first time under Beveridge the following season, one that further tested the coach's relationship with management.

Far more media-shy than his predecessor, Stratford nevertheless outlined long-term ambitions of his own for the club amid doubts over its future ahead of the 2018-19 season.

"It's never been a short term vision for me and never has been," he told The Mercury in September 2018. "I rallied the NBL to give me this thing for the long term. They were hesitant at the start, but I said if I want to make a go of this then I can't turn it around in one year or one week."

Differences with Beveridge, however, proved irreconcilable with the parties "mutually" deciding to part ways at the end of that season, another without finals action.

Stratford then appointed long-time clubman and assistant coach Matt Flinn to the head-coaching role, one that started with high hopes with the arrival of NBL Next Star and NBA Draft aspirant LaMelo Ball.

It brought plenty of hype, but injury restricted Ball to 12 games while marquee recruit Aaron Brooks played just six games before tearing his Achilles.

It saw the club slip to a franchise-low 5-23 finish, the initial LaMelo-inspired spike in revenue not enough for the club to bounce back from a combined $1.6 million loss over the previous two seasons.

It prompted Stratford to place Illawarra Hawks Pty. Ltd. into voluntary administration in April, with the administrator's initial report revealing debts in the vicinity of $2.4 million.

The company's fate will be determined at a creditor's meeting on Tuesday, with the preliminary report recommending the company be wound up. The NBL remains in negotiations with multiple parties to determine new owners of the club.

After six years of tumult, Hawks fans will be hoping it looks a lot more like their first experience of private ownership, than its second.