Olympic City Giants were a professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team based in

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Previously based in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

and

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

, the team were known as Bolton & Bury Hawks and then Bolton & Bury Giants, the team were founder members of the

British Basketball League The British Basketball League (BBL) is a men's professional basketball league in Great Britain and represents the highest level of play in the countries. The league is contested by 10 teams from England and Scotland. There are no clubs howeve ...

in 1986. After an eighth-place finish in the 1987–88 Carlsberg League campaign, Giants qualified for their first and only BBL-era Play-off. They drew top seed

Glasgow Rangers Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Although not its official name, it is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers outside Scotland. The fou ...

, and were soundly beaten in both games of the bet-of-three series by the regular season Champions. In 1988 after encountering several financial difficulties, Olympic City Giants formally merged with Manchester Eagles (formerly Manchester United) to become

Manchester Giants The Manchester Giants are a British professional basketball team based in Manchester, England. The franchise was established in 2011, and admitted to the top-tier British Basketball League in 2012. The team's formation was led by a consortium ...

, marking a return of the famous name after a three-year absence, following a merger between the original Manchester Giants and Manchester United in 1985.

Season-by-season records

Notable former players

* Ed Bona * Jimmy Brandon *

Terry Crosby Terry Dale Crosby (born January 4, 1957, in Toledo, Ohio) is an American former professional basketball player. Born ( ABA) and a 1975 graduate of DeVilbiss High School, he was selected by the Kansas City Kings in the 18th pick of the third rou ...

* Steve Nelson * Robbie Peers *

Kenny Scott Kenny is a surname, a given name, and a diminutive of several different given names. In Ireland, the surname is an Anglicisation of the Irish ''Ó Cionnaith'', also spelt ''Ó Cionnaoith'' and ''Ó Cionaodha'', meaning "descendant of Cionnaith". ...

* Cleveland Woods * Lee Martin

References

Defunct basketball teams in the United Kingdom 1981 establishments in England Basketball teams disestablished in 1989 Basketball teams established in 1981 1989 disestablishments in England Sport in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury Sport in Bolton Sport in Oldham Former British Basketball League teams {{England-sport-team-stub

Season-by-season records

Notable former players

See also

References