From the late 1950’s a group of teachers from the secondary schools in Burnley decided to set up an inter-schools Basketball league for boys- no Basketball for girls in those days!

With this in mind, some of the teachers involved attended refereeing and coaching courses.

The Secondary schools in Burnley catering for boys Basketball at that time were:
Barden Secondary Modern, Burnley Grammar School, Burnley Technical High School (Towneley), Burnley Wood Secondary Modern School, Rosegrove Secondary Modern School, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Secondary Modern School (St. Theodore’s).

At that time, not all schools had a gym, and some games were played in the school assembly halls.
Apart from encouraging the boys to play the game, most of the teachers enjoyed playing themselves; and this ultimately led to the formation of Burnley Basketball Club around 1959-60. Many of the teachers involved were from Barden, along with some teachers and mature students from Burnley Municipal College.

After playing a number of friendly fixtures against teams from outside the Burnley area, they joined the recently formed East Lancashire Basketball League, early opponents were:

De La Salle College from Middleton, Oldham, Old Rossendalians, Harris College of Preston, Fulwood Army Barracks of Preston, RAF Weeton (Preston/Blackpool), Kingsway of Rochdale, Manchester YMCA, Salford Technical College, HM Prison Strangeways.

The first known team photograph is dated 1962, and the players are: D. Clarke, B. Krengel, K. Green, E.I Rawstron, B. Preston, M. Handford, and N. Ward.
The team are shown at their home court at Burnley Technical High School (Towneley) prior to a 38-61 defeat to Salford Technical High School.
Around this time, quite a few of the boys who had learnt their Basketball in the inter-school league and had since left school joined the club, along with boys who were still at school, as junior members.

A BRIEF CHRONOLOGICAL RECORD

Season 1963-4 Competed in the East Lancs. Basketball League.
The First Club Officials were:
Secretary- Norman Ward
Asst Secretary- Keith Green
Treasurer- Mike Handford
Club Captain- D. Clarke
Junior Captain- Andy Towers.

Picture from 1962
Back: D Clarke, B Krengel, Keith Green
front; EI Rawstron, Brian Preston, Mike Handford, Norman Ward
Norman came back and coached the club whilst I (Tommy) was there in the early  80s.
Mike continued to play into the late 70's.

Season 1966-7 Competed in the East Lancs. League and also joined the newly formed Lancashire Basketball League (North East Div.)
Early opponents included: Liverpool City Police, Manchester YMCA Comets, Edge Hill College, Manchester University, Liverpool Cobras, Kingsway Rochdale.

This was a weekend league- most games were played on Saturdays.

Season 1970-71- Another change of venue for the home games; Burnley now played at Nelson & Colne College at Reedyford. They continued to compete in the Lancashire League finishing fourth in a twelve team league.
Having achieved a top eight finish in the Intermediate National Championships, Burnley were invited to play in the Senior National Knockout, but this resulted in an away defeat in North London.

Graham Pile and Ken Hare are in the press clipping from 1971

Season 1976-77- Burnley were accepted into the Manchester League- which consisted of 4 men’s divisions and 1 ladies league- but because Burnley had been competing against some of the top teams in the league for several years in the Lancashire League, Burnley were accepted straight into the First Division. Unfortunately, many of the First Division teams were not prepared to travel to Burnley on a midweek evening, so for their first season, all home games were played at St.Peters Roman Catholic School, Bury Old Road Prestwich.

The following year, following the opening of the new M66 motorway, Burnley was able to play their home games at the Thompson Centre.

Season 1977-78- Burnley and District Basketball League was formed,
Involving teams from over Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn and Rossendale; including-
Nelson & Colne College I & II, St Theodore’s, Barden, Old Rossendalians, Hyndburn Eagles, Hyndburn Colts, Lucas, Burnley Police, West Craven I & II, St. Christophers, Haslingden.

Burnley Basketball Club provided three teams for the new league, as they had a large number of players; these were Tappers, Team One, and Magpies.
Although the league was originally split into two divisions and operated on a home and away basis, the league functioned as a single venue league from Hyndburn Leisure Centre under the auspices of Bob Nutt for many years. Bob, now retired from basketball has been replaced by a young committee, and continues to flourish.

Burnley have continued to run a team in the Manchester League First and, more recently, the Premier Division- but apart from a runners-up spot in 1985 and several good cup runs, Burnley’s main successes have been in Lancashire Basketball- winning the Lancashire Cup in the late Eighties and the Preston League at the same time.

Burnley also entered for one season the North West Counties League- a reformed Central League, but after a mediocre season came out again and refocused on the Manchester League as the top priority

In the early years, Burnley endured several nicknames- Burnley Bats, Nelson Vikings- during their brief stay at Nelson & Colne College; but for most of their existence they have been known as plain Burnley Basketball Club.

During the last ten years, Burnley have worked hard on developing a Junior section of the club- several of the players have qualified as coaches and several hundred youngsters have gone through the Junior system, many have gone on to enjoy Basketball elsewhere, but many still play in the local leagues, and some have gone on to play for Burnley in the Manchester League. The Junior section practice every Saturday afternoon at the new St Peters Centre with three separate age group sessions, attracting 60+ young players.