40 Years On: The Weekend That Built a Record Nobody's Beaten

Two Games, One Weekend

Friday night, 11 July 1986, at the Snakepit. The Hawks trailed the Perth Wildcats deep into the fourth quarter before a 37-18 run blew the game open, closing it out 87-73.

There was no time to enjoy it. The team was on a plane to Brisbane the next morning, a full game against the Brisbane Bullets waiting for them that same night.

Boondall, 12 July 1986

Brisbane had Leroy Loggins, one of the great imports in NBL history, and he did what legends do. 30 points, 14 rebounds. It should have been enough.

It wasn't. For the second night running, the Hawks controlled the fourth quarter, this time 30-24, to close out a 100-94 win. Alphonse Hammond led the way with 27 points on 62% shooting. Jim Bateman added 26 on 61%.

Brisbane would go on to make the Grand Final this season, going down 2-1 to Adelaide.

Seven Blocks!

And in the middle of that Saturday night shootout, Don Bickett put up a number nobody in Hawks history has ever passed. Seven blocks, one game. Forty years on, it's still the highest single game block tally in club history.

Matched Twice, Never Beaten

Melvin Thomas got there twice, on 25 May 1992 and again on 14 August 1992. Larry Davidson matched it on 19 February 2010. Three players, four instances, one number. Nobody has gone higher.

Even in the modern game, seven blocks is rare air. JaVale McGee managed six twice in NBL26. AJ Ogilvy hit six back in 2015. Both fell one short of a mark set before either of them were born.

Forty Years, Still Standing

That's the kind of weekend that built this club. Back to back games, a plane ride in between, a legend on the other bench, and the Hawks still found a way to close both nights out. Bickett's seven blocks were the exclamation point on a weekend that proved exactly what this team was made of and were to become in 1987.

Four decades later, the number hasn't moved. Hundreds of players and thousands of games since, and the ceiling Bickett set at Boondall has never once been raised.

What's next?

This season's Hawks are writing the next line in that history book. Sixteen home games, all season, at the WIN Entertainment Centre.Be there for it, because the history you just read started with someone who was in the building.

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