The Illawarra’s past Paralympians have been immortalised in Wollongong with the unveiling of plaques acknowledging their achievements alongside the region's Olympians. 

A Wall For All

The Illawarra Tribute Wall was built as a legacy of Sydney 2000 but for 20 years it only listed Olympians. Paralympians began being added after Tokyo 2020 and now a two year project by the Illawarra Olympic & Paralympic Fundraising Committee has sought to add all the names of the region’s past Paralympians to the wall.

Brendan Dowler, Nick Taylor and Shawn Russell have been added to the wall alongside Tristan Knowles, Brett Stibners and Luke Pople who had been listed after Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024. Knowles and Stibner’s previous Paralympics were also recognised.

“It’s a tremendous honour. To have something so local to where we are, centre of Wollongong,” said Dowler.

“The Olympians have been on the wall for a number of years now so to bring the Paralympians on and get that recognition is a really powerful thing and hopefully it inspires the next generation of local athletes with a disability.”

Dowler was not only one of the athletes honoured, he was also part of the committee that gathered other names to ensure they got the same recognition.

“The records weren’t so great for the first 40 or so years, the more recent athletes were obviously easier to track down and determine if they were eligible to be on the wall, if they fit the criteria or not.”

“We split them (the names) up and had to do some research. There were some who didn’t really know about the wall but they were really happy to hear about it and honoured that they’d been identified and would get that sort of recognition”

Immortalised

Among those honoured and in attendance was para-archer Eric Klein who competed at four Paralympics from 1980 to 1992. 

“It’s a great honour and very humbling to have this happen. It’s very pleasing to see all the other Paralympians of the Illawarra recognised in such a way,” said Klein.

“It’s the recognition that you don’t get forgotten for your achievements and it’s not only for disabled athletes seeing this on the wall, it’s for all disabled people. They can come past here, see the achievements of disabled people from all the different varieties of disabilities and think, “Maybe I can do that”.

The parity alongside able-bodied athletes on the wall is a small reflection of how far the Paralympic movement had come since Eric went to his first Games.

In 1980, the USSR refused to host the Paralympics alongside the Olympics. People with a disability were highly stigmatised and largely excluded from Soviet society that when an official was asked if they would host the games he declared, “There are no invalids in the U.S.S.R.!”

“In 1980 we were in Holland, we didn’t go to Moscow, because they didn’t have any disabled people, then England in ‘84 because America didn’t hold the wheelchair part of the Paralympics, then Seoul and Barcelona in 1992 being so integrated with the able-bodied Olympics was good. We stayed in the same accommodation, competed in the same stadiums, it was really good.”

Klein went to four Paralympics with para-archery but also played at the highest level in wheelchair basketball.

He played from 1974 to 2003 at state and national level and competed at the Gold Cup which was the precursor to the IWBF World Championships.

Alongside Eino Okkonen and Brendan Dowler, he was a founding player of the Roller Hawks in 2001. 

“We put together some ideas on how to form a team and grab players from the Sydney league and invite other players like Tristan and then go out to the corporations, from there we were able to get proper uniforms, pay for flights.”

“We travelled, we did the midnight express to South Australia and Western Australia, the deadly double.”

“It was a big learning curve, we had a lot of young players, a few seasoned players. We won the national championship in 2003 and things took off from there. People started to want to play for us. We were not just another team, we were a team to beat.”

Illawarra Tribute Wall

Roller Hawks listed on the Illawarra Tribute Wall

Brendan Dowler (2004, 2008)

Tristan Knowles (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024)

Brett Stibners (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020)

Nick Taylor (2012)

Shawn Russell (2016)

Luke Pople (2024)

 

Other wheelchair basketballers from the region

Michael Callahan (1984, 1988, 1992)

Gerry Hewson (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000)

Troy Sachs (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008)

Eric Klein who competed at four Paralympics in para-archery (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992) but was also a foundation player of the Wollongong Roller Hawks and who represented Australia at the Gold Cup.