National Basketball Heritage Centre

The NBHC's exhibition cabinet at UW Arena was included in the Worcester News this week! 📰💫

The article discusses our future plans for the collection and highlights the areas in which we are focussing on getting further donations, such as wheelchair basketball and smaller regional teams. 🏀⛹️‍♂️

We are hugely grateful to the English Basketball Fellowship for making the display possible, and also to the UW Press team for the photos and interview included in the article. ✨

Read the full interview on the UW blog here: https://www.worcester.ac.uk/about/news/basketball-trove-goes-on-display-at-university-arena 💻

Worcester News article:
https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/sport/25933573.university-worcester-launches-basketball-heritage-display/ 🔗

New display shines spotlight on more than 75 years of basketball in the UK Discover the new basketball heritage display at University of Worcester Arena, featuring historic memorabilia from the National Basketball Heritage…

✨Celebrating International Women's Day 2026✨

The NBHC Archives Assistant spoke on Friday at Worcester Business School’s International Women's Day Event on the theme 'Give to Gain' - a brilliant and inspiring evening of talks on a wide variety of subjects. 💫👏

The NBHC’s talk focussed on how the collection can give support and promotion to the GB women’s basketball community, and how we can all gain from preserving and remembering their heritage. 🏀⛹️‍♀️

Our public display cabinets in The Hive and UW Arena in Worcester showcase some of the amazing material we hold related to women’s basketball. Come and take a look, or drop us an email at [email protected] to find out more! 💌

Check out the University of Worcester Library Service's coverage of our recent cabinet unveiling! 📖✨
We're looking forward to working more with the wider LS team to promote the collection and engage with students and staff 👩‍🎓⛹️‍♀️

🏀 Think basketball is just about what happens on the court? On 23 January, the National Basketball Heritage Collection team celebrated the launch of a new mini-exhibition in the Arena foyer, showcasing the history, people, and stories that have shaped basketball in the UK. From grassroots beginnings to elite performance, the exhibition highlights the University of Worcester’s links to basketball and the donors who helped preserve this important sporting heritage. The event featured talks from Theresa Oakley and Katy Small from Library Services (first picture), David Green, and founding donor Jenny Collins, and was attended by Worcester Wolves coaches and players, UW staff, and representatives from Basketball England. The new display cabinet was generously funded by the English Basketball Fellowship. 📍 Sports students, history fans, and basketball lovers – the exhibition is now open in the Arena foyer. Well worth a look between lectures #uwsport #worcesterwolves #universityofworcester #basketballheritage #worcestersports

We were very honoured to be joined by such a wonderful group of supporters for the unveiling of the display cabinet so generously donated by the 🏀⛹️‍♀️
We look forward to the future development of the NBHC and future collaborations with the Fellowship and Basketball England! 💫✨
The cabinet can be seen in the foyer of the University of Worcester Arena - to learn more about any of the displayed items or the wider collection, contact us on: [email protected] 📧

Festive Wishes from the team at the National Basketball Heritage Collection! 🏀🌟
Our tree this year is decorated with mini versions of pennants from the Ken Charles Collection. 🎄 You can see the list of the other items we hold which showcase Ken's esteemed career in the sport, by browsing the box-level catalogue here: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=nbhc%2Fkc&_sd=&_ed=&_hb= 🔗
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and look forward to working on some exciting projects throughout 2026... ⛹💫

We are very pleased to share that our ‘History of Basketball’ outreach project has been chosen as one of The National Archive’s ‘Highlights’ in their ‘Year in Archives’ publication! 🎉
The publication showcases and celebrates the work of archives across the country which embody the sector’s vision of ‘Archives Unlocked’. 🔓
Our project aimed to introduce undergraduate and sixth-form students to the world of archives within a familiar context – basketball! 🏀 The sessions were a great success and we look forward to running more in the very near future…
See our ‘Highlight’: https://tinyurl.com/yc5y3k2n 💫
Explore the rest of the amazing work done by the sector in the full publication: https://tinyurl.com/529phzea 🔗

🌟🏀✨50 Years of the Women's National Basketball League ✨🏀🌟

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Women's National League, and the NBHC have created a display on Level 3 of The Hive in Worcester to celebrate! The display showcases some of the teams and players from the early years of the tournament, and has prompted some interesting discussions about the changes in the nature of the promotional material used.

See the list of scoresheets we hold from the league on our catalogue here: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=nbhc%2Fja%2F1%2Fw
💻🔗📚

Preservation in action! 💫📚
We've been doing some preventative conservation work with Gordon Cole's collection of business cards, accrued over his career as a referee. The plastic of the original packaging contains PVC, which produces damaging hydrochloric acid as it degrades over time - the cards have now been repackaged into specialist PVC-free archival sleeves, which will stand the test of time! ⏳
Browse the catalogue of the full Gordon Cole Collection here: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=NBHC%2FGC&_sd=&_ed=&_hb= 🔗

✨🏀 'Don’t let our basketball heritage die' - Jenny Collins on preserving the game's history 🏀✨

We are very pleased to share that the collection has been mentioned in Basketball England's recent interview with Jenny Collins!

Jenny is an English Basketball Fellow, founding donor of the collection, and a member of the collection committee. She talks below about the importance of preserving the game's history and the role the collection plays in helping do this.

For more information on the collection, see our webpage: https://library.worc.ac.uk/national-basketball-heritage-collection-special-collections 💻

https://www.basketballengland.co.uk/news/2025/don-t-let-our-basketball-heritage-die-jenny-collins-on-preserving-the-game-s-history/

'Don’t let our basketball heritage die' - Jenny Collins | Basketball England English Basketball Fellow and basketball archivist Jenny Collins says her greatest wish is that British basketball has a museum to showcase and remember its comprehensive and rich history.

We had a fantastic day earlier this week showcasing the National Basketball Heritage Collection at the University of Worcester School of Sport & Exercise Science undergraduate conference! Some great conversations were had with staff and students, and our display of international pin badges was the star of the show... 🏀📚

Early access to the catalogue of the new Ken Charles Collection is now available! We've created a preliminary box-level description catalogue for this fantastic collection... It contains a wealth of insight into Ken's role in the sport, especially in the European and MiniBasketball movements. ⛹
The basic overview of the collection is available here: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/aa609e66-c0b5-4352-b6b0-602f56857331 🏀
Feel free to drop us an email for more detailed information on any items which interest you: [email protected] 📧