What Happened Afterwards?

Forty years have rolled by since the beginning of the Solent Stars Story.  The playing years have been chronicled in the book ‘A Sporting Rollercoaster – The History of Solent Stars basketball Club’.   Occasionally, even after all this time editions of the book are being bought somewhere in the world on Amazon.

Since publishing the book I have received the occasional comment.   Ron Whitehead wrote a few years ago to give the reason he contributed so little to one particular game by saying he had to get off his sick bed to come to the match and was generally below par on that occasion.  His scoring capacity was acknowledged throughout the two spells he had with the club (1985/86, 1995/96).  I replied by saying I would make sure the fact of his illness would be amended for the second edition! Ron has added the following information in February 2021:

"Yes, the weeks leading up to the Cup final against Kingston, I had kidney stones and lost a lot of strength, did not practice and should never have played. If you recall, Kingston was heavily loaded with talent so we decided to give it a try with me playing some minutes, think I played for a total of about 15 minutes or so, was all I could manage, one of the most ill times during my playing days.

We played Kingston later, like another month and really took it to them on our home court (NatWest cup game)."

Over the years, I have met with some of the players for the club.   Mark Saiers and Jimmy Guymon both live in the area and I see from time to time. Jimmy, who sadly lost his wife Beverly a few years ago, now attends matches played by the successful Solent Kestrels team that is coached by his son, Matthew.

One day whilst walking up Winchester High Street, I met Eddie Owusu who was pushing a pram.  That was while ago and I have not seen him since.   Whilst driving from Romsey to Winchester, I came across Mark Scott who had been running in a local recreation ground.

Others that I know of include the following:

Alan Cunningham – I have seen him on occasion and he was on the sports staff at Totton College when I last spoke to him

Mick Byrne – we meet up from time to time.  He may finally have stopped coaching, well into his 70s.  The Covid outbreak may have hastened this decision. His son, and ex-Solent player, Alex, still coaches locally in school and clubs.

Trevor Donaldson – he emigrated to Australia many years ago

Khalid Missouri – his name appears in the local press from time to time in connection with his job as a solicitor.

T. J. Robinson – his wife wrote a few years ago requesting a copy of the book which she intended to present to him for a birthday present.  Subsequently she sent a photo of him with the book.

Masai Ujiri -  to him has to be the acclaim of  one of the most successful ex-Solent player still connected with basketball.   After beginning his career at Toronto Raptors, he moved to Denver Nuggets for a spell before returning to Toronto to become their Chief Executive, leading them to be NBA Play-Off Champions recently. The picture below shows Jim Rumsey presenting Masai with a copy of A Sporting Rollercoaster at the Toronto Raptors' arena in 2008.

Paul Mundy-Castle – he became a headteacher in one of London’s schools.

Marc Steutal – has launched a successful coaching career with Newcastle Eagles and England

Karl Tatham – sadly died last year.  His obituary contained many of his photos from his successful career at Solent (and England) taken from the Sporting Rollercoaster book and our website.  He had continued with basketball by coaching various teams in his home town of Jacksonville, Florida.

Ken Walton – another player from the successful early years of the club, had continued to coach in the Oxford area.

Dean Owen – he married a friend’s daughter and I regularly saw him and his son at a Christmas event.  Sadly, his father Dave, who had been an outstanding servant to the club over the years, died several years ago.

Paul Philp – he lives locally and even became a local councillor for several years.  He had a Graphic Design business. He also has most of the old photos of the club and its players that I lent him a few years back, but have yet to get back.

Jim Kelly – he was also working at Toronto when I visited in 2008, although he gave as his home address somewhere in California! The picture below shows Anne and Jim Rumsey with Jim Kelly at the Toronto Raptors' arena in 2008.

Steve Fitzsimmons – he retired from teaching at a local college to go and live in the West Country.

David Butterworth – he lives less than a quarter of a mile from me.  He teaches locally but must spend most of his time avoiding me since I have only seen him once over several years.

Tom Wisman – the club’s first and most successful coach.  He went on to coach in Australia and then the Japanese National Team.  I met one of his Australian players when flying from Adelaide to Sydney and gave him a note for Tom.  It is probably still in the player’s sports bag.

Steve Chant – we were in touch until a couple of years ago.  Steve taught at Toynbee School, Eastleigh which was, coincidentally the workplace of Tom Craver before he returned to live in the USA.

Drew Sewell and Roy Lewis both worked locally in Children’s Services.  I met Roy. who lives near a friend of mine, last year.  I was wearing a jacket with the Solent Stars logo on it -  a fact that he remarked upon.

Jason Colgan worked at a local college, now a university, in Portsmouth.

Mark Jackson also coached local college basketball at Brockenhurst College in the New Forest.

Steve Davison continued playing in local league basketball after his National League experience.

Joe Morant emigrated to the east coast of the USA.

Jon Rumsey – he still lives in the area and without him  and his expertise with the computer neither the Solent Stars book nor the blog nor this article would reach anyone.  

Please feel free to give any other updates using the comment option below.

Jim Rumsey 

January 2021