Just recently a sister from Queensland came up to Logan to visit Blaine. Violet Bailey, stayed with us for a week. She was actually born in the Church...at 74 she is a genuine pioneer in the Australian Church. She is in Utah for three months doing Family History research. It turned out that Violet (Vi) remembers the Mormon Yankees well...attended games in which Blaine played...and loved to play basketball herself. So we had a great time talking about days gone by...and basketball in Australia.
Two of my long-time Jaycee friends were missionaries in Queensland and played with the Mormon Yankees. Lanny Gunnell passed away too young. Lanny Nalder lives in Providence, so I took Vi over to see him. Nalder was a star player all his life. We had a great time talking about basketball in Australia.
Then quite remarkably, a few days later, Blaine Worthen called to tell us to watch BYU Channel 21, because there was a special about the Mormon Yankees in Australia. It absolutely blew me away. I played basketball with the Mormon Yankees in Western Australia, but I had no idea of the impact which basketball had on the Church. All I knew was that I played with missionaries who were the best players I had ever seen. It was a privilege just to be on the same team with them. We were never beaten. We played the WA State team and beat them easily. In fact, that was the first televised basketball game in Western Australia, and I scored the first two points on a layup.The BYU program featured Australian basketball players who uniformly agreed that the Mormons raised the level of basketball in Australia to new heights...and they uniformly expressed great respect for the missionaries as individuals and players. The 1956 Summer Olympics were held in Melbourne and the Mormon Yankees were asked to train and help prepare the Australian Olympic team for their first Olympics. When the international basketball teams started arriving in Australia, they were looking for teams to play practice games. The Olympic Committee invited the Mormon Yankees to play many of the teams. Incredibly they beat every team except the Russians and the US team who won the silver and gold medals respectively. They beat the French and Chinese teams twice.
You can imagine how proud the members of the Church were in Australia. And the positive publicity about the Mormon Yankees opened doors all over the country for missionary work. The missionaries conducted basketball clinics for young people, played local teams and handed out thousands of Books of Mormon. Some of the Mormon Yankees, now old men, were interviewed on the BYU program. They talked about experiences like people rushing the court, after an exhibition game, just to touch them; they were icons...they were as popular as the Globetrotters.
So I had no idea that the two seasons I spent with the Mormon Yankees in Perth were so unique. I was playing basketball with the University of Western Australia when I joined the Church. Since there were no other Universities in Western Australia, we played in the City leagues. I started in the D league and was playing A Reserve when I joined the Church. The year before (1960) I had travelled to the Gold Coast in Queensland (by train) with the WA University team to play in the bi-annual Inter-Varsity Competition. I actually played against some of the Aussie blokes featured in the BYU film. Some of you may recall me telling the story about our first game against the University of South Australia. Our boys were all drunk from a beer drinking competition the night before. We had to dress our best player, but he could not even stand. That was the only basketball game I have ever heard of being lost by 100 points. The score was 128 to 28.
A year later (June 1961) I joined the Church...a life changing event as you can imagine. Elder Bruce R. McConkie became the Mission President a month later. Unknown to me was the fact that missionary basketball had been curtailed by the new Mission President in Sydney. The missionaries in Perth prevailed upon President McConkie to let them play basketball and he agreed. But he had conditions. One condition was that the Mormon Yankees should have two local boys on the team. I was recruited away from the University of WA team. My Aussie team-mates were not happy, and I sat on the bench a lot, but...and I can't emphasize this enough...it was an honor and a privilege...and an incredible education... to play on that Mormon Yankee team.
Our two real stars were Elders Schumway and Fotheringham. I realize now that they were probably handpicked to serve as missionaries in Australia. Physically they looked like twins...both 6' 4"...both quick as cats...and both with what looked to me like 36" vertical leaps. I had never seen anything like those two. They were awesome players. I have never forgotten them. I have often wondered where they are.
For many years I kept my Mormon Yankees jacket, # 10 shirt and shorts, but I must have reluctantly given them up during one of my infrequent clean-outs. The only relic I retained from those days is the tongue out of one of my Converse Chuck Taylor gymn shoes, on which I had written:
"A. WEGENER, MORMONS, WA."
Check out Google and Youtube :
"Mormon Yankees: Giants on and off the Court".
