Who is Bob Gihbu ?

Almost 50 years ago after graduating from university. I moved from my home in Boston to Cork where my parents spent their  summers. I enjoyed living and working near my cousins and became involved with the Cork basketball scene as one of the first American "amateurs" to play in the Irish National League.

My adventure lasted about 4 years during which time I made many long time friends. Back home in Boston, as the years went by, I tried to follow the progress of Irish basketball (especially my club Neptune).  

It wasn't easy to keep up to date. A few years ago, I stumbled upon a Facebook group that focused on Irish Basketball Memories but it concentrated on what is referred to as the Golden Era which started in the late 70s / early 80s. That was good in that it was a good group to interact with other fans and supporters of Irish Basketball but there was very little info about the earlier days of Irish Basketball History. 

I became frustrated when my attempts to research the early days of the sport found hardly any historical documentation. This became even more bothersome as I saw the passing of more and more of the Irish basketball icons (some of them were old friends) . I saw the history of the sport being lost in the waves of time.

So I started a project to research and document as much of the early history that I could. Over the last few years, I have organized and shared my findings on a website.

https://ibb-history.blogspot.com/  (A Little Bit of Irish Basketball History - The Early Days)

There I try to tell the story of the early days of the sport and the people who laid down the foundation for the sport. With the help of many others who contributed pictures, stories and info, I think the website now provides the most extensive view of the Early Days of Irish Basketball history available (full of pictures, stories, newspaper clippings etc. ).

Despite the fact that so much history has now been documented, I still feel somewhat discouraged that there appears to be little effort in documenting the sport in general and so much more will be lost. My efforts focused mostly on the Men's Senior Leagues.

I hope that my efforts and website might encourage others to start similar efforts to document other eras and aspects of the sport for Women's, Junior, Underage and Masters levels to name a few.  Time is ticking by, every day that goes by results in more history being lost.

Unfortunately the Irish Basketball Memories Facebook group I mentioned above appears to have recently fallen by the wayside. So  I created a new  group with the hope it can provide a new place for those basketball enthusiast to share any basketball news, opinions, memories, pictures, etc.  that they feel the group might find interesting. For now it is an open group that any one can Visit and Join.  So check it out. 

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The group is called Irish Basketball History and More. Share the link below with your friends. It might take a little while to build the membership but hopefully you will find it entertaining and help it grow.     https://www.facebook.com/groups/ibbhistory 

If you do decide to join us, I have been encouraging new members to introduce themselves to the group. So many Facebook profiles show little information, contacts or posts. So an introduction might tell your fellow members what you are interest in and what you might have in common. If you are uncomfortable with that, its OK, we understand.

I also hope some of you might  be interested in helping with the administration of the site or fulfilling a role as some type of regional "reporter". The ideal goal is to establish a self sustaining administration group that represents many of the "regional" Area Boards. If you are interested in a role like this or know someone that might be,  please share this link with them. You can also contact me with a Facebook PM thru Messenger .

Thanks.  I look forward to seeing your new postings. Remember, it is your posts that keep "your" group interesting.   

 Bob Higgins  ( aka Bob Gihbu )