BIO: Eric Cooks was born in Indiana (USA) and went to on play college basketball for St. Mary’s College in California before relocating to Australia to pursue a professional career in the South East Australian Basketball League (CBA/SEABL). Cooks was known as the Leroy Loggins of the CBA in his time in the league due to his winning ways and slender build, similar to Leroy (who was only 100 kg at 201 cm in height).

FAMILY: Eric is the father of both Dom Cooks (14 NBL games) and Xavier Cooks (119 NBL games).

NBL EXPERIENCE

Eric Cooks made his NBL debut with the Illawarra Hawks at 34 years of age. He scored two points in his first game.

After another season missing out on the NBL playoffs in 1996, the Hawks were unable to retain their scoring and rebounding leader Marcus Timmons (who would end up leading the Melbourne Tigers to the championship that season) and were forced to move into a rebuilding phase for this season. The Hawks rebuilding would focus on the continued development of Hawks big man Matt Zauner, who was named team captain at the start of the season, and young stars Glen Saville and Mat Campbell. The Hawks chose not to re-sign 31-year-old Andre LaFleur and signed two young imports in guard Bryan Edwards and big man Clayton Ritter to replace the scoring and rebounding of Timmons. The team also added SEABL stawart Eric Cooks who had played under head coach Brendan Joyce during his time with the Ballarat Miners in state league competition, a team which had also included both Saville and Campbell.

Cooks would play primarily off the bench and averaged 8.9 points and 6.5 rebounds in his debut NBL season but with Edwards not being the fit needed at point guard and off-court issues between Zauner and Joyce stemming from a contract dispute the Hawks struggled. Edwards was replaced by Dylan Rigdon mid-season and the Hawks (7-23) failed to make the playoffs yet again.

1998
In 1998, the team was renamed the Wollongong Hawks and moved into WIN Entertainment Centre, known as the Sandpit. The Hawks re-signed star Clayton Ritter and paired him with defensive minded guard Elliot Hatcher. Alongside the talented import duo Cooks contributed 11.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists and helped the Hawks double their wins from the previous year, improving from seven wins to 14 wins and finishing in sixth place.

In the elimination finals the Hawks would go on to face the Perth Wildcats, losing back to back games before being eliminated from the playoffs in the first round.

1998/99
During the 1998/99 season the Hawks continued to improve for a third year in a row. The team recruited CJ Bruton from the Brisbane Bullets to become their starting point guard, alongside imports Clayton Ritter and Theron Wilson and a talented rookie by the name of David Andersen.

There, Bruton (20.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.5 assists) would be given the ‘green light’ on offence as he jumped from 15.4 points to 20.8 points per game while playing the most amount of game time (46 minutes per game) of his seventeen season career.

The Hawks finished the season winning two more games than the year prior, improving upon their previous record for the third year in a row and finished in third place with a record of 16-10.

Cooks contributed 4.2 points and 3.3 rebounds in a season where they won two more games than the year before and finished in third place with a record of 16-10.

During the post season the Hawks first lost to the Victoria Titans in two straight games in the Qualifying Finals but were the recipients of the ‘lucky loser’ rule where the highest placed loser of the top four team’s qualified for the semi finals. The Hawks faced the Adelaide 36ers next, who also defeated them in two straight games in the semifinals and delivered a end to their season.

1999/00
During the 1999/00 season Cooks averaged 2.4 points and 1.6 rebounds, and helped Hawks finish the year in eighth place finish with a record of 11-17.

Eric Cooks played four seasons in the NBL, playing for both the Illawarra Hawks and the Wollongong Hawks. He averaged 6.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 0.7 assists in 119 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (833 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.