LORRAINE EILER Born: 1934 Inducted to the Basketball Australia Hall of Fame - 2007 First Australian woman to receive USA college scholarship Captain of first Australian women's team to play at World Championships 1957 
LORRAINE Eiler (nee MacGuire) was a pioneer of women's basketball in Australia, one of a rare breed to switch from netball and become even more successful in her new sport.
And Eiler played for Australia in netball.
The tall South Aussie athlete was something of a sporting freak, in the truest sense of the word. An A-grade tennis player, she additionally played for South Australia.
When she swung her attention to basketball in 1954, success there too was imminent, Eiler rated highly for her athletic ability.
By 1957, she was captain of the first Opals team to represent Australia at a FIBA World Women's Basketball Championship, leading the team to Brazil - a mere three years after taking up the sport seriously.
The trip was undertaken by ship and included a lengthy stopover in New Zealand, all of the national team's players self-funding their chance to play in the green and gold.
Whatever amount the team failed to reach through its extensive fund-raising activities, was met from their own pockets, the Australian Basketball Federation at the time not particularly helpful.
For Eiler, that was a cost of 1100 pounds for the two-month boat trip. Australia was outclassed by the USSR and Paraguay but competed well against Argentina and Mexico, before beating Cuba and Peru.
The Opals averaged 38.8 points per game through the tournament, Eiler with 8.7 points per outing and wowing the crowds in Rio de Janeiro who adopted the popular Aussies as their own.
In another first, Eiler was the first Australian offered a scholarship to play college basketball in the US.
Her list of accomplishments in sport generally are amazing, but her basketball career was exemplary.
She was captain of the Adelaide Vikings team which enjoyed unbeaten seasons in 1955 and 1956, then played in six consecutive grand finals from 1959-64, winning four championships.In 2007, her contribution was recognised by Basketball Australia when it inducted Eiler into its Hall of Fame.