Larry Sengstock

Larry was born in Maryborough on 4 March 1960. He grew very quickly and was 5’11” (181cm) at 11 years of age. When he started high school at 12, he was 6’2” (187cm). At school, he was coached by the legendary Ray Alloway who taught the fundamentals of basketball and encouraged children to play.

Larry was soon to begin a representative career representing Wide Bay at the Australian Under 14 Club Championships at Wynyard in 1972. In 1975, he was a member of the Queensland Under-16 Team which won Queensland’s first Australian Championship under coach Ray Alloway.

After finishing Year 12 at Aldridge High School (Maryborough), Larry moved to Melbourne to play with St Kilda and to study at University. In 1977, he made his debut for the Australian Men’s Team playing against a visiting overseas team (Perugina) and toured to USA and Europe. In 1978, at 18, [and by now 6’6” (198cm)] Larry was selected in the Australian Men’s Team for the World Championship in the Philippines when he was yet to represent Australia at the Junior level.

He first represented Australia as a junior at the 1979 World Championship in Brazil.In 1979, the (Australian) National Basketball League (NBL) began and Larry was a member of the victorious St Kilda team which took out the first title.

He was to go on to have an illustrious career in the NBL. He played 456 NBL games between 1979 and 1996 with St Kilda Saints, Brisbane Bullets, Gold Coast, and North Melbourne Giants; he was certainly a favourite ‘Queensland son’ welcomed home to the Bullets.He won five NBL championships: St Kilda 1979 and 1980; Brisbane 1985 and 1987; and North Melbourne 1994, scored 5,466 points and hauled in 3,221 rebounds. He was the NBL Grand Final MVP in 1979 and the NBL MVP medal, presented annually, is named in his honour.

Likewise, he had a very successful career internationally, representing Australia eight times at the World Junior Championships. At the senior level, 79 times in official international competition, and another 206 times in international tournaments and games. These included the World Championships in 1978, 1982, 1986, and 1990; and the Olympic Games in 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992.

He was one of the most-feared “big men’ on the international scene. Larry was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and inducted into what is now the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. Always a great ambassador for both Queensland and Australia, Larry in recent years has pursued a career in sports administration and consultancy.

Larry Sengstock: a very worthy member of the Class of 2016 of the Queensland Basketball Hall of Fame.