MANY sports have individuals who participants commonly love to hate. With basketball it’s the referees.

Hamilton now has one fewer with the legendary Doug Palmer passing away on December 30 after a brief illness, aged 82.

Doug had few peers with the whistle in country Victoria when it comes to experience and formal qualification.

Maybe his proudest moment was, circa 2006, when three generations of the Palmer family were refereeing the top grade of Hamilton basketball: Doug, his daughter Sara and grand-daughter Georgie Byrne.

But Doug’s interests extended well beyond basketball.

He volunteered with Standing Tall, a not-for-profit mentoring program in Hamilton where respected members of the public weekly offer students guidance and encouragement to continue taking advantage of the opportunities that education provides.

Doug was a member of the Hamilton History Centre for many years – and an author as well.

He wrote a book on basketball’s 50 years in Hamilton, published in 2007.

There was another on the 40-year history of the Hamilton & District VVC Drivers Club.

In that book Lloyd Hocking wrote the foreword, stating that Doug was a foundation member.

He had held all positions on the committee during the first 21 years.

The club was formed in 1970 following a meeting with Peter Mitchell, Paul Earea, Ron Gay, Lloyd Hocking, Doug and Mel Pickett.

Doug also gave plenty of help when the History Centre published "Hamilton Remembers World War Two 1939-1945", released in April 2021.

He spent “years” in the Spec library researching cars, aeroplanes and motorcycles.

Doug was our go-to man when we needed background on the early garages in Hamilton.

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AFTER family, basketball was a special passion during his years in this city.

He had never known of the existence of the sport in Hamilton, until brother-in-law, Chris Watt, asked him to join his team.

Doug started playing in 1965 (just a year after he returned from Melbourne) on the asphalt courts in the sheep pavilion at the showgrounds.

By 1967 Pat McNamara and Perc Aydon had him refereeing the occasional game when no-one else was available.

 This, of course, increased when the new 2-court stadium was opened in 1969, and he found himself refereeing on women’s night as he was still playing in the men’s competition.

On his first attempt to gain a higher grading by going to Melbourne to referee country championships the Victorian rules interpreter gave him a hard time and said that because he came from the ‘arse end of Victoria’ he would never make the grade.

This got Doug’s dander up.

He got his A grade in 1984 and by 1989 was promoted to Victorian Level 1 and asked to referee in the newly formed Country Victoria Invitational Basketball League (C.V.I.B.L), the lead up to what is now S.E.A.B.L.

He was further promoted to the top 13 referees in country Victoria and participated in the women’s basketball association’s grand finals in Melbourne - and did a two-year stint at the Australian Junior Championships in Albury.

In 1992 he was promoted to state level 2 and received a personal invitation (the only way to get there) to officiate amongst the top 20 referees at the Victorian Championships at Ballarat.

 He did this three years in a row.

Also in 1992, he was awarded his State Examiners Certificate, allowing him to grade referees to country state A level.

Doug was the local referees’ advisor for 12 years, had been president of the local association and had served on the committee for many years.

Doug was one of four referees in the Western District or Wimmera Mallee qualified to conduct evaluations on referees at any state registered tournament.

 The others are Portland’s Keith Wilson, Murtoa’s Terry Davis and Horsham’s Kevin Offer.

Palmer was the second Hamilton referee to achieve that status, after Pat McNamara.

It cost him thousands of dollars in self-paid accommodation and thousands of kilometres travelled throughout Victoria to achieve this target.

He told the Spec some years ago there was little more he could achieve in country basketball.

“I’ve gone about as far as I can go without refereeing more games in Melbourne,” he said.

Considering Hamilton is so isolated Doug’s achievement is especially memorable, further because the district isn’t one of the major country basketball areas in Victoria.

Palmer’s achievement makes him one of the highest ranked umpires ever to come from Hamilton.

He was awarded life membership by the Hamilton Amateur Basketball Association in 1990.

The year before he was nominated for Hamilton Sportsmen’s Association’s Sportsman of the Year Award.     

There’s now a HABA Doug Palmer Award for a season’s most improved referee.

FOOTNOTE: Information from Spectator library.  At the time of writing funeral details had not been made public.