Sandgroper Sports
Watty, Scotty & Anth are Three sports mad Western Australians who are keen to profile West Aussie sportspeople, their lives and experiences in sport and outside of sport. We love hearing great human stories and we know that many others in our community do too. Sandgroper sports proudly focusses on Western Australians and takes the form of a casual discussion, where we discuss with our guests their lives in WA, what it's like being a WA athlete, what life is like outside of sport and what they think makes our state unique. Our podcasts are real life, authentic, conversations with our guests discussing how they got to where they are today, the ups and downs of their careers and what it means to be from WA.
Sandgroper Sports
Perth Wildcats Icon - Cal Bruton
This week's guest is not a born and bred West Aussie in fact he is native of Brooklyn NYC. But most basketball heads will say he’s probably the one that put this Sport on the map in our City.
A renowned baller growing up, he was a highly touted point guard coming out of college and had try-outs with NBA teams, during one of them was spotted by an NBL recruiter. A week later he was playing in the NBL’s inaugural season of 1979.
A storied career that spans 5 decades in the league, NBL title winning player and coach, Coach of the Year, League Scoring Champ and now Hall of Famer.
He represented Australia at the World Champs in 1986 and has an Order of Australia Medal for his service to Basketball as a player and coach in this country. He gives back to the indigenous community and still helps develop juniors to this day.
Most famously he transforms the Perth Wildcats organisation and helps bring home their first NBL Title, which we get to deep dive into.
He is the Black Pearl, He is the master of the “Run and Stun and Have some Fun” and he is the absolute OG of American imports to our league.
Tune in to our chat with Cal Bruton and hear some incredibly personal stories about growing up in NYC, losing his Dad to violence and becoming the man of the house at age 12, dominating college basketball then breaking out of a mental institution eventually trying to make it in the NBA while running a trash route on the side.