Since 1999, the Beers have been aiming for average on the basketball courts of South-East Queensland, Australia.

According to legend, the Beers started as a group of guys from UQ who played pick-up ball together. The very first team in Beers folklore wasn’t even called the Beers - the name was ‘Team Macca’. Macca was threatening not to play, so we named the team after him so he would feel compelled to suit up.

Details of of ‘Team Macca’ are sketchy, but from memory we began the Beers tradition of miraculously making it to grand finals, & subsequently losing them, in that very first season.

In early 2001, a team was entered in the Auchenflower Sunday night comp called the ‘Brisvegas Beers’. Many of the original members of Team Macca were still playing, but gone were the teal singlets with iron on numbers. In their place was a set of navy, orange and black uniforms fresh off the plane from Pakistan - now recognised as the official Beers retro colours.

According to internet archives, the first Beers website appeared at www.brisvegasbeers.com in April 2001. Over the years the team makeup has changed so that only Plow and B.D.F. remain from the original Beers.

The team grew in infamy until ‘Brisvegas’ was dropped and we simply were known as ‘The Beers‘, or quite often ‘Those damned Beers’.

Moments of celebrity include Brisbane Basketball staff being asked about the Beers by the Mexican National team whilst on their Australian tour, partying with the US goodwill games team (Andre Miller was a champ!), and being featured on Brisbane television show Brisbane Extra.

The Beers playing ranks have included a NBA draft pick, an Olympian and other luminaries within their respective fields. We also periodically award honorary beer status to those we think are worthy.

We had a crack at playing reserve grade for a while and even recruited some ABA ring ins and played in the A grade division of the Maroochy Carnival for a couple of years, making the semi finals at first attempt. But age and a lack of ability has since relegated the mighty Beers to B grade forever more.

B grade has been good to the club though, and we deservedly crowned ourselves as the B grade Champions of the World, back to back in 2004 and 2005. Champagne flowed and fan celebrations filled the streets of Maroochydore. It was the first time the Beers ever won a grand final.

After a crushing defeat at the hands of ‘Currimundi Boys’ in the B grade championship game in 2006, the Beers vowed to return to greatness and claim both the basketball and the never disputed beer drinking titles in 2007.

Instead the Currimundi Boys decided to join the Beers ranks and now play as the Beers Sunshine Coast franchise and are the reigning B Grade world champs. The Auchenflower teams have also won a couple of titles. There’s currently 5 Beers teams we know of, playing at Auchenflower, Carina, Boondall & Maroochydore.

In July 2008 the Beers are playing their first international match, in Phuket, Thailand. When we return from our international tour, perhaps masters competition will lure the increasing number of 35+ Beers.

We’ve also been talking about starting our own league so we can fire the dodgy referees, but who knows when that will happen… The only certainty in the club’s future, apart from arthritic joints and hangovers, is that we’ll have fun and keep on jacking up contested 3 point shots.

Long live the Beers.