Danny Morseu

Danny Morseu (born 1 January 1958 in Thursday Island, Queensland) is an Australian basketball player who played on the Australian national basketball team in the 1980 Summer Olympics and 1984 Summer Olympics.

International career

Morseu played for the Australian team at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, where Australia finished eighth, and at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where Australia finished seventh, their best Olympic result to that date. He was the first Torres Strait Islander to represent Australia at the Olympic Games.

He also played twelve world cup matches for Australia.

Club career

A Torres Strait Islander, Morseu was born in 1958 on Thursday Island in Far North Queensland. He spent his childhood in Tamwoy, a mission on Thursday Island, where he grew up without running water or electricity. He started playing basketball at school and despite being cut from his primary school team, he developed into a tall talented teenage athlete. After completing school he moved to Cairns where he played basketball and rugby league for local teams.

Morseu attracted the attention of National Basketball League coach Brian Kerle after playing a match against Kerle's club, the Melbourne-based St Kilda Saints – on tour of North Queensland. Kerle convinced Morseu to move to Melbourne in 1978, where he played in St Kilda's championship winning teams of 1979 and 1980. He played 217 NBL games in total, winning another NBL championship with the Brisbane Bullets in 1987.

Later biography

In 1984, he completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in recreation from Footscray Institute of Technology. He was employed in a range of activities for state and federal governments in Victoria and Queensland, including working in indigenous health. He has acted as a mentor for other indigenous basketball players such as Nathan Jawai and Patty Mills.

Awards

Inducted into the NBL Hall of Fame in 2002, Morseu was the first indigenous basketballer so honoured. He was inducted into the Victoria University Sport Hall of Fame in 2007.

Personal

Morseu is the uncle of Australian Boomers players Patty Mills and Nathan Jawai.