National Basketball Heritage Collection: University of Worcester Special Collections
The National Basketball Heritage Collection (NBHC) was founded at the University of Worcester in 2015 and is currently held at The Hive.
It was initiated by major donations of historical basketball material from John Atkinson and Jenny Collins, who felt the sport’s national heritage needed a dedicated space for its preservation.
The Collection is supported by the sport’s national governing bodies (Basketball England and GB Basketball) and has representation from the English Basketball Fellowship on the Collection’s committee.
The Collection consists of both unique archival material and published titles related to coaching and the history of the sport. The NBHC holds a wide range of material types, including:
- unique statistical records and score sheets for thousands of domestic matches dating from the 1970s
- Carlsberg League
- British Basketball League (BBL)
- handbooks and guides from the sport’s administrative organizations, dating from the 1950s
- Amateur Basket Ball Association of England and Wales (ABBA)/ England Basket Ball Association (EBBA)
- English Basketball (EB)/ Basketball England (BE)
- British Basketball League (BBL)/ Super League Basketball (SLB)
- English Schools Basket Ball Association (ESBBA)/ Scottish Schools Basket Ball Association (SSBBA)
- matchday programmes for domestic and international matches dating from the 1940s
- a large collection of basketball magazines, with around 60 separate titles, including key publications such as:
- Basketball / Basketball Monthly (1960-1989)
- Pawprint (1976-1992)
- FIBA Basketball Monthly (1992-1999)
- Slam Dunk (1994-1998)
- MVP (2011-2015)
- Zone Press (1990-2003)
- personal and career-related material from the donors, such as correspondence, expenses records, awards and photographs
- memorabilia, including pennants, pins, game used uniform and equipment
- coaching documentation and guidance materials
- international material, including material illustrating the history of the sport at the Olympics and links between the growth of the sport in the US and UK
- player and coach match and season records
The Collection comprises donations from key figures and organisations in the history of British basketball, and include material collected throughout the careers of these significant individuals, their personal items and memorabilia.
At present we hold four main collections:
- The John Atkinson Collection
- British basketball historian and statistician
- The Richard Parkes Collection
- Coaching expert and club owner
- The Alan Richardson Collection
- FIBA-accredited referee and technical advisor
- The Basketball Heritage Book Collection
- A collection of published titles, relating to sport history, coaching and technical skills, as well as biographies of basketball icons, basketball related fiction and an extensive run of magazines
We also hold a number of personal collections, including those from:
- Ken Charles MBE
- Basketball England President Emeritus and recipient of FIBA’s highest honour, The Order of Merit
- Bernie Roy
- Former England player and organiser of basketball player reunions
- Gordon Cole
- Internationally acclaimed referee
- Rick Wooldridge
- Former England coach and key figure in ESBBA
- Mark Dunning
- Former President of the Basketball Coaches Association
- Brian Coleman
The Collection is in the process of being catalogued. Most of the collections will be hosted on The National Archives Discovery platform, while the Basketball Heritage Book Collection can be found on the existing University catalogue.
To browse the items that are currently catalogued on Discovery, search for ‘NBHC’ at The National Archives, or select a specific collection to explore from our account page.
To browse the Basketball Heritage Book Collection, search for ‘National Basketball Heritage Collection’ under the ‘Books and Media’ tab on the library catalogue, or access it via this saved search.
