HIGH ACHIEVERS: Fearless, fun-loving, free spirit – basketball’s Donna Hobin had ‘championship DNA’

By Martin Cleary

Play basketball at the highest amateur level and see the world.

Ottawa’s Donna Hobin lived out that dream from the time she was a teenager until her early years as a senior citizen.

Hobin, a graduate of the Nepean High School and Ottawa Rookies basketball programs, used her determination, shooting and rebounding skills to make the 1975 Canadian women’s senior squad at age 18.

That was the start of a basketball adventure that took her to eight countries on four continents in about 16 months before she experienced Olympic history, when women’s basketball was introduced to the Montreal Summer Games in 1976.

Despite failing health, Hobin accepted an invitation from Basketball Canada to attend the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, where she watched the national women’s team struggle to a disappointing 11th-place finish, after preliminary pool losses to France, Australia and Nigeria.

Hobin, the first Ottawa woman to be named an Olympian for basketball, passed away Aug. 28 because of cardiac issues. She was 68.

She founded Integrity Gardens and Landscaping in 2000 and recently retired for health reasons.

Hazel Miner, who will be inducted onto the Nepean Sports Wall of Fame next month at the Nepean Sportsplex, created the Ottawa Rookies basketball program in 1973-74 to allow girls to play a high level of the game.

Read More: HIGH ACHIEVERS: Basketball builder Hazel Miner leads charge of 12 inductees onto Nepean Sports Wall of Fame

Hobin, a five-foot, 11-inch forward and centre, joined the Rookies for the 1974-75 season and was accompanied by Nepean High School teammate Gay Owens. In her debut season, Hobin helped the Rookies win their first Ontario girls’ junior title and followed that by surviving the tryouts to make the Canadian women’s senior basketball team.

By making the national team, she had reached the peak of women’s basketball in Canada and head coach Brian Heaney was spearheading the national charge for the discipline’s Olympic debut.

Basketball became Hobin’s immediate focus through various training camps in Halifax and travelling around the world for elite-level game experiences against the best in the business.

“Donna was enthusiastic to learn the game every day she crossed the lines,” Heaney said in an email interview on Thursday. “She was a fearless competitor, very tenacious even though outsized often at the international level, a mix-it-up-in-a-crowd rebounder.”

The Canadian team, which included players Chris Critelli, Sylvia Sweeney and Carol Turney-Loos, started the 1975 season with tournaments in East Europe and China.

Those matches served as Canada’s preparation for two major competitions that fall – the world women’s championship Sept. 23 to Oct. 4 throughout Colombia and the Pan-Am Games Oct. 12-26 in Mexico City.

They were eye-opening experiences for Hobin and the national team.

Canada lost all three preliminary games at the worlds – 103-52 to the then Soviet Union, 67-55 to Hungary and 71-53 to Mexico. In the classification round, Canada lost its fourth consecutive game 93-83 to Brazil, but put together a three-game winning streak to place 11th – defeating the United States 74-68, Senegal 76-37 and Australia 73-71.

Hobin only saw floor time in two games at worlds and averaged 1.2 points, 0.6 rebounds and 0.2 assists a game.

At the Pan-Am Games, Canada won three of its seven matches over Dominican Republic 55-33, Colombia 68-58 and El Salvador 95-40, but fell to Brazil 74-54, the United States 75-56, Mexico 78-74 and Cuba 78-61 to finish fifth overall.

On several international road trips, Hobin shared a room with national team rookie Deb Huband of Ottawa, who became a hall of fame player and coach.

“She was a free spirit and had a wonderful sense of humour,” Huband said in a phone interview about Hobin on Thursday. “She was a lot of fun and made road trips more interesting, especially for a wide-eyed rookie like me.

“She had experiences to share. These road trips were before cell phones to remote places and different places than we were used to. She always made sure you felt comfortable, safe and entertained to some degree on the long trips.”

Read More: Deb Huband entering Canada Basketball Hall of Fame a second time

Heaney brought the team together in early 1976 and took them to pre-Olympic tournaments in Poland, Spain, Czechoslovakia (now Czechia), Italy and France.

Despite all its preparations, Canada was overwhelmed at the 1976 Olympics, losing all five games and placing sixth – 115-51 to defending world champion Soviet Union, 121-89 to Japan, 89-75 to the United States, 67-59 to Czechoslovakia and 85-62 to Bulgaria.

Hobin played in all five games at the Olympics and averaged 1.4 points, 1.2 rebounds, 0.4 assists and 11.6 minutes a game.

She played 20 minutes in the opening loss to the Soviet Union, collecting one rebound before fouling out of the game. In the second game against Japan, she had 15 minutes of floor time, scored two free throws and added a pair of assists, turnovers and personal fouls.

“Donna was very quick with excellent speed, so she could guard multiple positions … possibly the youngest player (19) on the ’76 team,” Heaney continued. “I always thought she would have a great future in international basketball had she wished to travel (overseas).

“She was a sinewy six feet and could run and press all game long, if she had the playing time. As an active force, she defended the inside paint … and as a quality rebounder she was responsible to start the fast break into transition.

“She did the little things that were key … setting screens, diving on loose balls, creating deflections, keeping the ball alive on the glass and was a presence in the interior zone areas defensively and also in the back of the full-court press.”

In 1978, Hobin played her final season with the national women’s team, which delivered its first international medal (bronze) at the Cuba Cup. At the 1979 world championships, Canada earned the bronze for its first-ever medal at that level.

After the Olympics, Hobin attended Saint Mary’s University and played in the 1976-77 and 1978-79 seasons.

Turney-Loos and Hobin were the backbones of the Saint Mary’s team in the 1976-77 season as it went undefeated in the Atlantic conference at 14-0. Saint Mary’s was fourth at the Canadian women’s university championship in Calgary, losing the bronze medal game to Victoria.

Hobin averaged 20.8 points and 9.2 rebounds a game in the regular season for Saint Mary’s and was selected to the conference first all-star team. Turney-Loos led the way with 30.0-point and 10.6-rebound averages.

During her second and final year, Saint Mary’s had a 7-9 regular-season record and was 8-10 overall in 1978-79.

Hobin returned to Ottawa and played two more seasons with the Rookies. During the 1979-80 season, she was part of the Ontario senior A gold-medal team, which had a fifth-place result at the national championship tournament.

The Rookies lost the 1981 provincial title to Kitchener-Waterloo Reivers, but the winning team picked up Hobin, and Rookie teammates Sandy Clubb, Sandra Gurnett and Ingrid Kihl for nationals. Kitchener also placed fifth.

Hobin, who was named the first female basketball player of the year at the 1975 Ottawa Associated Canadian Travellers sports awards dinner, also has been inducted into two halls of fame in the team category.

The 1976-77 Saint Mary’s women’s basketball team entered the university’s sports hall of fame in 2024. Hobin also was a member of the 1982 Red Fox senior women’s basketball team from Halifax, which won the Canadian championship in Fredericton. The Red Fox team was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Hobin was “very, very popular” with her teammates, according to Heaney.

“They all knew that, be it practice or games, she would extend maximum effort. She lived up to the OLYMPIC IDEAL as a player. She had the total respect of her teammates,” he wrote.

“She was a complete delight to coach and an honour to have her at such a young age as a member of Canada’s WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM. She had championship DNA at whatever level she competed in.”