JOE FARRUGIA has made a name for himself in Australian basketball. The former Malta Basketball Association president left his mark in the game Down Under as the first head coach of the Illawarra Hawks, the only side to remain from the original ten teams to play when the National Basketball League began in 1979. Kurt Aquilina spoke to Farrugia about his time with the Hawks and what they have become…
Joe Farrugia moved to Melbourne in 1974, getting his first coaching job with the then-called Nunawading Demons, but moved to Wollongong in Illawarra and joined the Hawks’ junior and women’s teams while assisting headcoach Adrian Hurley, two years later.