While in Melbourne over the weekend, I tracked down the person behind a rare piece of sports memorabilia linked to a Toowoomba championship. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

Recently I was in Melbourne for the Australian Football League grand final, and it was at the old Brunswick Street Oval in Fitzroy the next day, that I came across Sam Porter and spoke to him in the historic Kevin Murray Stand.

Sam is more than a fan of the Brisbane Lions, he’s a superfan of all sports and Brisbane teams in particular. We talked about one person in particular and that was former NBL player Tom Gerhardt. Gerhardt played five seasons in the NBL including four with the Brisbane Bullets and one with the Hobart Tassie Devils. He also won two State Championships with Gold Coast Cougars, and another two State Championships – they were those famous back-to-back titles with the Toowoomba Mountaineers in 1990 and 1991.

Gerhardt’s legendary Mountaineers teammates back then included Pop Dickerson, Dave Nelson, Danny Morseu, Sidney Mines, and a young John Rillie who is now the head coach of the Perth Wildcats.

Co-incidentally, I caught up with Gerhardt recently, along with another championship-winning Mountaineer Sidney Mines, and the famous former high school All-American James Jackson who I also played with on the Gold Coast. They are three of my all-time favourite teammates.

Now back to what Sam and I were talking about. When Sam was just a youngster, Gerhardt invited him to sit on the team bench during the NBL regular season at the old Auchenflower stadium. That was in 1980, and disappointingly for me, while Sam was sitting on the team bench that year, I was sent outside to sell parking tickets!

Anyway, that season was Gerhardt’s first and best in the NBL in which he averaged 16.1 points per game. It was also the first season for legendary Bullets teammates Brian Banks and Leroy Loggings. The Bullets made the semi-finals for the first time and beat Nunawading in the play-off for third.

Young Sam was only six-years-old at the time, and he was delighted with the experience and that the Bullets had actually won a play-off game for the first time, in just the second year of the NBL.

Sam was so happy in fact that he wrote a thank-you letter to Gerhardt in gratitude for letting him sit on the bench, and in Sam’s young mind, he had helped the team win a final.

Recently I discovered that actual handwritten letter in some archives. It was written 46 years ago, in 1980 which was just the second season of the NBL. I believe that it is the oldest surviving fan mail in Australia’s National Basketball League history.

And it was written to Toowoomba’s very own Tom Gerhardt who of course became legendary in the history of the Mountaineers by virtue of those back-to-back state league titles. Brisbane also has a claim over him, as does Gold Coast where the native of Chicago, Illinois, now lives.

Incredibly over the weekend in Melbourne I was able to catch-up with the writer of that letter superfan Sam and verify its authenticity. It was very exciting.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON 4AK.

Photo credits:
The Oldest Fan Letter in NBL History – Harold Peacock with Copilot.
Harold Peacock with Brisbane Superfan Sam Porter following 2026 AFL Grand Final, Fitzroy – Kate Porter IMG-20260927-WA0006.
Toowoomba Mountaineers, 1990 – Toowoomba Mountaineers, Sidney Mines personal collection.
James Jackson, Harold Peacock, Sidney Mines, Tom Gerhardt on the Gold Coast, 2026 – Rebecca Gerhardt IMG_20260803_201159.
Brisbane Bullets season ticket, 1980 – Harold Peacock personal collection 20260928_162415.
NBL oldest known fan mail, 1980 – Harold Peacock personal collection 20260919_105148.