Background The Melbourne Tigers were established in 1931 with the birth of the Victorian Basketball Association (VBA). The Melbourne senior men's club began as
St Lukes from North Fitzroy, where basketball games were played at St Lukes hall from 1924. The name of the club went through an evolution process where the club changed from St Lukes to Church of England, to becoming Church. It then became Melbourne Church and finally in 1975 the club decided to change its name to
Melbourne Tigers. The Junior Boys' Club originated from the Saturday night Church of England Boys' Society (CEBS) competition run at
Albert Park Stadium, which began in 1959. Junior girls' basketball was not played until 1968. The CEBS competition folded in 1970, which led to the Melbourne Tigers Junior Basketball Association taking over competitions run at Albert Park.
Men's team Between 1965 and 1970, Melbourne Church of England won the
South Eastern Conference (SEC)
championship every year. The league was abandoned in 1971. In 1981, the Tigers were an inaugural team in the
South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL). In 1982, they finished second on the SEABL ladder In 1983, they finished first on the SEABL ladder They went on to reach the ABA National grand final, where they won the National championship with a victory over the
Bulleen Boomers. The Tigers name continued in the NBL until the franchise rebranded as Melbourne United in 2014. In 2004, a Tigers state league men's team joined the
Big V Championship Division. Following the 2015 season, the Tigers men's team left the Big V and returned to the SEABL in 2016 for the first time since 1983. In 2019, following the demise of the SEABL, the Tigers men and women joined the
NBL1 South. In the
2025 NBL1 South season, the Tigers men reached the grand final, where they lost 99–80 to the
Sandringham Sabres.
Women's team The Melbourne Tigers played in the
Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) between
1989 and
2001. They reached back-to-back WNBL grand finals in 1994 and 1995, finishing runners-up in both years. In 2002, the Tigers women's team joined the
Big V Championship Division. In 2003 and 2004, the team won back-to-back
Big V titles. In 2011 and 2012, the team lost back-to-back Big V grand final series to the
Eltham Wildcats. In 2017, the Tigers women's team joined the SEABL for the first time. ==References==