Few would have guessed that a skinny teenager from Bendigo via the ABA in Ballarat would become entrenched in the records books as the clubs most capped player over a decade later.
Mat Campbell - photos: pix.s23.com.au
When Mat Campbell arrived in Wollongong, the then Illawarra Hawks were playing in the old Beaton Park Snakepit, in the midst of rebuilding the team.
Now thirteen seasons later the renamed Wollongong Hawks are rebuilding all over again, but Campbell is no longer the unknown rookie with a sweet three point shot.
He's a championship winning captain and former Australian Boomer attempting to return the Hawks back to prominence.
Mat is now the team leader who has experienced both the pain of the dreaded Wooden Spoon in his second season, and the high of captaining the IMB Hawks to the 2001 NBL Championship with best mate and fellow Bendigo junior Glen Saville.
Campbell is posting career numbers (15ppg) for the IMB Hawks this season despite playing much of the season with an achilles injury which forced a several week layoff.
Despite the ongoing pain the captain is determined to stay on the court and help out the depleted Hawks wherever possible, be it scoring, outside daggers, lock down "D" and leadership.
"Soup" who has long been considered a Wollongong local has his feet firmly planted in the region, the face of the IMB Hawks plans on playing a few more seasons in the NBL before calling it a day and firmly planting himself in the clubs record books.
Loyal to the region and team, Campbell has knocked back more lucrative offers from clubs each time he's been off contract throughout his career in the view of retiring a one-team-player.
Recently Soup surpassed Saville on the club's all-time games played list.
Two weeks after breaking the games played record; Campbell became just the second Hawk to score 5000 points with a momentum changing triple to end the first quarter against Adelaide in career game 399.
Campbell's next match, again a home game at The Sandpit will make him just the 7th player in NBL history to chalk up 400 for one club, joining an illustrious list of:
- Mark Davis (Adelaide)
- Brett Maher (Adelaide)
- Leroy Loggins (Brisbane)
- Lanard Copeland (Melbourne)
- Andrew Gaze (Melbourne)
- Warrick Giddey (Melbourne)
- Ricky Grace (Perth)
