Vale Peter Brettell, Hawks Life Member

It is with deep sadness that the Illawarra Hawks family mourns the passing of Life Member and former chairman Peter Brettell (1944 to 2026), one of the people who made this club possible.

On Saturday night in Adelaide against the 36ers, the Hawks players will wear a black armband in Peter's honour.

A Life Member, a former chairman and a fixture of Illawarra basketball for decades, Peter was a key cog in getting the Hawks into the NBL's foundation season in 1979. He then led the club's board for the next 20 years: through the era of unpaid coaches and players, the roar of capacity crowds at the Snakepit, the move to the WIN Entertainment Centre and the arrival of the club's first private owner.

The Illawarra Basketball Association, which Peter once led as President, has paid its own tribute. It remembers a talented and fiercely respected player, coach and administrator whose service and leadership, in the association's words, "laid much of the foundation for the community we enjoy today."

Illawarra's basketball man

Peter moved to Wollongong in 1963. By his own account, that is when his love for hoops began.

Fourteen years later, in 1977, he was elected President of the Illawarra Basketball Association, a position he held for 15 years. The Hawks name was already three years old by then, chosen in 1974 by coach John TrivellionScott and the players. What the club still needed was a place on the national stage.

When the Hawks applied to join the NBL for its inaugural season, Peter was in the middle of it. Once that application succeeded, he took the chair of the club's board and held it for the next 20 years.

The Illawarra Basketball Association describes him as a player, a coach, an administrator and a former President. Few people have worn so many hats in one region's basketball story.

Two decades in the chair

The early years were lean, as Peter told hawks.com.au in April 2022 for the club's "faces in the crowd" series. "The early years were interesting as the coach and players were not paid, a situation that changed in about year three," Peter said. The board was unpaid too, and so were the countless volunteers who kept the lights on, and the seats up, around the club.

The lights did not always stay on at the old Snakepit, but the crowds kept coming. A new Snakepit rose in 1983, built with funds from fans, sponsors and a major state government grant. "We could now cram in a couple of thousand extremely passionate fans," Peter recalled, "and the atmosphere was simply electric with all games played before capacity crowds."

The club's finances were not always as healthy as its crowds. When the Hawks faced the prospect of withdrawing from the league in late 1983, Cross Country Motors stepped in with sponsorship and a management team of local business figures was formed to steady the ship. Peter's name is on that list, alongside eight others who helped steady the club.

As the sport grew through the late 1980s and early 1990s, so did the club. Peter was proud of one appointment above all: Yvonne White, the Hawks' first full-time paid office administrator. "A great appointment to say the least," he said.

During his time in the chair, Peter was involved in hiring the club's first nine head coaches. The ninth was Brendan Joyce, who took the Hawks to their first championship in 2000/01. "All of these coaches, albeit with different egos and personalities, did a remarkable job for the Hawks," Peter said.

The Hawks eventually outgrew the Snakepit.

In Peter's telling, the club was a major driving force in securing the $20 million NSW Government grant that allowed the WIN Entertainment Centre to be built, "a great achievement by the club that is sometimes forgotten." Around the same time, he and his fellow board members came to a conclusion after 20 years of what he called blood, sweat and tears: a bigger home meant private ownership would need to become involved if the Hawks were to remain financially viable. In 1998, John Carson of Beechwood Homes became the club's first private owner, and Peter's long stretch as chairman came to a close.

Peter in his own words

Peter had a storyteller's memory, and when the club sat down with him in April 2022 for its Faces in the crowd series, the stories came thick and fast.

He spoke of the players first. Gordie McLeod, a Hawks captain and later head coach, was a favourite. "He had a heart the size of Phar Lap, would always give 150 per cent and will go down as one of the best point guards to ever play in the NBL," Peter said. Of Glen Saville, he said: "One of the most athletic players ever to play the game, his all-round skills were amazing and a joy to watch."

Then came the Snakepit tales. There was the night the Hawks beat their old rivals the Kings and a punch-up broke out just before the final buzzer, "but no Hawks players were involved," Peter was careful to note, "as the punch-up was between a couple of Kings players." There were the blackouts, when the lights would die in the final quarter and take 10 to 15 minutes to return. "We were often accused of doing this on purpose as it only seemed to happen if we were losing," he said. "Not true of course."

And there was the visiting import who lost his cool at half-time and put his fist through the wired glass of a change room door. Had it not been for resident doctors Roger Parrish and Robin Yarrow, Peter said, the man could have lost his arm. "Not smart on his part."

Basketball was family business for Peter, too. His sons Chris and Jason both spent time with the Hawks as players.

The memory that stayed brightest was from the WIN Entertainment Centre in 2000/01. "Watching Damon Lowery sink those three free-throws after the full-time buzzer to send the team to Townsville for the grand final is a moment I and everyone else in the building that night won't forget," he said.

He believed the club's supporters were some of the best in the NBL, if not the best. "Being a small regional club, we are always the underdog and classified as 'a little brother' in the NBL, which always gave fans/supporters that little bit extra to cheer about," he said, "and boy they sure have done a fantastic job."

In that April 2022 profile, Peter backed the Hawks to win a second championship. It came in 2025.

Farewell, Peter

Peter Brettell (1944 to 2026) gave the Hawks his time, his judgement and two decades of his life. He did it unpaid, and he did it for a region that has always punched above its weight. Every Hawkhead who has packed a loud room in red and black stands on ground he helped to clear.

The Illawarra Hawks extend our deepest condolences to Peter's children, Chris, Tanya and Jason, and to all of his family and friends.

Vale, Peter. Thank you for building the nest.

STRONGER. LOUDER. TOGETHER.

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