It was a special night at Sydney Swans HQ on Thursday as two giants of our club were inducted into the Swans Hall of Fame.
Club patron Basil Sellers and former chairman Richard Colless became the only administrators since Craig Kimberley to receive the honour of becoming Swans Hall of Fame members, on the same night that it was revealed Sydney Swans HQ will be formally known as the Basil Sellers Richard Colless Centre.
Sydney Swans Chairman Andrew Pridham said the Board gave long consideration to an appropriate name for the building, as it needed to reflect the essence of what the club stands for.
"We are all about people. We are a football club and great people have navigated our football club through the inevitable high and lows that 150 years delivers. Different people contribute in different ways, and it was important that the naming of the building acknowledged the very highest of contribution. Not just to this building – but to the club as a whole," he said.
"It is appropriate that the naming reflects two people who have been critically important figures in our club's history. Both Richard and Basil have been as important in forging our future in Sydney as they have been in preserving our heritage as South Melbourne. Two cities, one club; two great men, one building."
About 250 people gathered for a dinner to thank those who have made a significant contribution to making the Basil Sellers Richard Colless Centre possible. The facility's indoor training field was transformed into an impressive function space to host the event.
Basil Sellers AM has long been a significant contributor to the Sydney Swans. A ‘True Believer’, he was part of the ownership group, together with John Gerahty and Mike Willesee, who helped save the club in the late 1980s and he served as a director from 1989-1993. Our former home at the SCG was named the Basil Sellers Centre in his honour.
Having a life-long love of sport that began with playing cricket in India as a child, Basil and his family moved from India to Australia in 1948, settling in Adelaide. He played cricket, baseball, and basketball himself, and developed a love of Australian Rules through following the North Adelaide Roosters in the SANFL – a team that is also red and white. It was no surprise then when, years later as a successful businessman living in Sydney, he began following the Swans when the team made the move from South Melbourne.
Outside of sport, Basil also has a love of art. He brought his two great passions together as the benefactor of 11 sculptures of sporting greats around the SCG – including Swans greats Paul Kelly and Paul Roos – another eight sculptures at Adelaide Oval, and the Bob Skilton sculpture at Lakeside Oval in Melbourne. Earlier this year he helped deliver the sculpture of Swans Legend Adam Goodes that stands proudly outside Sydney Swans HQ.
Richard Colless AM is Sydney’s longest serving chairman, having led the club from 1993-2013. Under his leadership the club became one of the AFL’s most respected and successful, both on and off the field. His reign at the club resulted in two premierships (2005 and 2012), four grand final appearances, and finals appearances in 14 of those seasons.
During his time at the Swans, Richard also held the position of Chairman of the NSW/ACT AFL Commission, which oversaw significant increases in the development of Australian football across New South Wales.
His passion for the club and reverence for its history was a driving force behind the introduction of the Swans Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2011, the Swans Heritage List was also created to honour items and moments of significance in the club’s history.
Richard is now the Patron of the NSW Australian Football History Society. In this role he has been largely responsible for the initiatives such as NSW Greatest Team in 2019 and the football awards for NSW players in the AFL that include the Carey-Bunton Medal and the selection of a State-of-Origin team each year.
The Swans honours came a night after Basil Sellers, Richard Colless and Michael O’Loughlin became the first AFL inductees as Life Members of the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The Sydney Swans would like to take this opportunity to extend our immense gratitude to everyone who has contributed to making our new home possible.