New members of Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame

The Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame inducted 2 new members in 2023, a basketballer ahead of his time and a trampoline gymnast who competed at the highest level of his sport for 17 years.

Ian Davies

Ian Davies (1 January 1956 – 7 November 2013) was the son of Carlton and Longford footballer Fred Davies.

With awe-inspiring athleticism and deadly three-point range Ian Davies set the mould for the modern Australian basketball star, inspiring the golden generation that followed.

Davies helped put the Australian Boomers on the map, outshining more famous opposition and leading all scorers at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, averaging 30 points per game in the tournament.

He also competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Games as well as the 1982 and 1986 FIBA World Championships, in a career that saw him represent Australia on 81 occasions.

On the domestic front he started his NBL career in 1980 with the new franchise Launceston Casino City. In 1981 he helped put his home state of Tasmania on the basketball map, leading Launceston Casino City to their one and only NBL Championship. Finishing the season in fourth position and playing the highly rated Brisbane Bullets in the first final, Davies lead the team to a two point victory before defeating Nunawading in the final.

He went on to play 252 games in the NBL for teams all across Australia. Starting in 1982 he played four years for the Newcastle Falcons, before a move to the Geelong Supercats in 1986 and then the Sydney Kings from 1988 to 1990. Davies helped forge a path that many young Australians now follow, playing four years of US college basketball with Graceland University from 1974-1978.

In 2001 Davies was inducted as a member of the NBL Hall of Fame and in 2017 he was inducted as a member of the Basketball NSW Hall of Fame.

Ian Davies is a worthy addition to the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame.

Jack Penny

After participating at the highest level in Trampoline Gymnastics for seventeen years, Jack Penny retired from the sport as a competitive athlete in 2017 after representing Australia 20 times in events including the Australian Youth Olympic Festival, World Age Group Championships, World Cups and World Championships.

Jack’s first world age championships were in 2005 in the Netherlands, before making his senior world championships debut in France in 2010 where he would finish 5^th in the Double Mini Tramp.

In 2006 Jack was awarded Gymnastics Australia’s, National Athlete of the Year.

Establishing numerous Tasmanian records, Jack competed at the 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2017 world championships under national coach and former world champion, Brett Austine.

Jack performed a personal best at the final Olympic Games trial event at the 2016 Australian championships, qualifying first and finishing second behind South Australian Blake Gaudry and was a member of the Australian Shadow Olympic Squad for the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

In his final event at the 2017 world championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, Jack finished eighth in the men’s synchronised trampoline.

Jack exemplifies qualities that have kept him involved in the sport through a variety of mediums, including obtaining a FIG judges accreditation, which sees him judging at international events since 2016; becoming heavily involved in the administration side of gymnastics through the Gymnastics Tasmania Board, including becoming President of Gymnastics Tasmania in 2022. Jack is also member of the Olympic Advisory committee formed through alliance with Gymnastics Australia.

Jack has not only been a trail blazer for the sport of Gymnastics in Tasmania, but also a role model and leader in sportsmanship for Australian athletes. Looking back over a successful career, since 2002, it is obvious to see that Jack’s impact and reputation for sporting behaviour, fairness and encouragement reaches far beyond the Tasmanian Gymnastics community.

Jack Penny is a worthy addition to the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame.