Lindsay John Casson Gaze (born 16 August 1936) is an Australian basketball player and coach. He played for Australia in three Olympics qualification series between 1960 and 1968 and coached the Australian basketball team at four Olympics between 1972 and 1984. Gaze coached the Melbourne Tigers for 35 years, including 22 years in the National Basketball League (NBL), winning two championships in 1993 and 1997. He was the coach of the year in 1989, 1997 and 1999 and is second in the all-time number of coaching wins in that league. Lindsay Gaze is a member of the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and coach and an associate member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, and has been announced as a 2015 inductee to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.
Olympic career
Gaze was born in August 1936 in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of Albert J. Gaze and Avis M. Gaze. As a youth, he played both basketball and Australian rules football. Gaze played in the Victorian Football Association for Prahran. He was selected as a member of an Australian rules team that played an exhibition match in the Melbourne Olympics although he didn't take the field.
However, it was in basketball that he would make his mark in the Olympics. He was selected for the Australian basketball team for the Rome Olympics which was the first Australian basketball team to travel overseas for the Olympics. Gaze soon established himself as one of Australia's leading basketballers establishing an international reputation when he was selected as a member of the All-Star Five in the 1962 World Championships. He married Margaret Gaze in 1962 with the couple having a son, Andrew Gaze (born 24 July 1965) and a daughter, Janet Gaze-Daniels (born 8 July 1964).
Gaze would represent Australia during the qualification tournaments for the 1960 Rome, 1964 Tokyo and 1968 Mexico City Olympics, but Australia only qualified to compete at the 1964 Games. He developed a reputation as a fanatical trainer training two or three times a week with his club and at home. Gaze also coached national under 16 and under 18 squads during his playing career.
His reputation for training led to his appointment as the coach of Melbourne Tigers in 1970 and of the Australian basketball side in 1971 coaching the team at four Olympic Games in 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984. Andrew Gaze was part of the team that he coached in 1984. Lindsay Gaze would write his first book Better Basketball in 1977.
NBL Coaching Career 1983–2005
Lindsay Gaze was the inaugural coach of the Melbourne Tigers at the start of the NBL in 1984. He retired in May 2005 after 22 seasons and 689 games with 363 victories. The Melbourne Tigers won two championships in 1993 and 1997 with Gaze as coach. He was a widely respected coach in the NBL winning Coach of the Year three times during his career. He announced his retirement from basketball on the same day that Andrew Gaze announced his retirement after 612 NBL games. Lindsay Gaze had coached Andrew Gaze during his son's entire career as an NBL player with the pair forming the longest standing father-son partnership in the history of world sport. The pair would also author a book Winning Basketball in 1992.
Lindsay Gaze was also a member of the NBL Board. In 2004, he became a part owner of the Melbourne Tigers with Andrew Gaze. On his retirement, journalist Stephen Howell of the Melbourne Age wrote that history would judge him as the most influential figure in Australian basketball.
CBA Coaching Career 2008–
Gaze was announced as head coach of Tianjin Ronggang who play in the Chinese CBA for the 2008/09 season.
Record and accolades
Lindsay and Andrew Gaze are the only Australians currently in the FIBA Hall of Fame. Andrew was inducted as a player in 2013.
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