Background Rockhampton Basketball Inc., originally known as the Rockhampton Amateur Basketball Association, was formed in March 1962. Frank Howie, the coach of the first Rockhampton team to compete in a Queensland championship in 1961, was elected the inaugural secretary of the association; Rockhampton's basketball stadium, formerly known as Hegvold Stadium, was designed by John's father
Eddie and had its grand opening in December 1962. The facility was named in honour of Eddie.
First Championship In 1995, the Rockets made their way through to their first ever grand final, where they were defeated by Southern Districts. The following year, they returned to the grand final and won their maiden state championship with a victory over Southern Districts in the title game.
Championship dynasty The Rockets endured a championship drought between 1997 and 2007, as they made a lone grand final appearance in 2006 that saw a defeat at the hands of Southern Districts. Two weeks later, the Rockets celebrated the city's first national championship after a courageous 103–99 victory over the
Hobart Chargers in the grand final of the
2008 Australian Club Championships at the
Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. Centre Ryan McDade was named grand final MVP after recording 24 points and 19 rebounds. The Rockets went on to qualify for six straight QBL Grand Finals between 2009 and 2014, winning titles in 2010, 2013 and 2014. The 2013 Rockets squad was stacked with NBL talent, with their starting line-up consisting of point guard Mitch Philp, shooting guard
Justin Watts, small forward
Brad Williamson, power forward
Stephen Weigh and centre
Michael Kingma. They reached the 2013 QBL Grand Final with ease, where they defeated the
Brisbane Capitals 102–95. Philp took out the game MVP award for his effort of 26 points including six three-pointers and eight from 10 free throws, in addition to seven assists and two steals. Heading into the
2014 season, the Rockets set their sights on creating a dynasty by winning back-to-back championships for the first time in team history. They were successful in doing so behind the leadership of American forwards
Chehales Tapscott and
Ray Turner, as the Rockets took out the best-of-three grand final series in a clean sweep, defeating the Mackay Meteors 2–0. Turner took out the MVP award for Game 2 for his efforts of 31 points and 15 rebounds.
NBL1 North For the 2020 season, the Rockets joined the newly established
NBL1 North, which replaced the QBL. ==References==