Born and bred in Tamworth where he attended Christian Brothers College, Our Lady of the Rosary (now McCarthy), he then left Tamworth for Canberra to coach the Canberra Cannons in the National Basketball League in 1981.

He may well be Tamworth’s best sporting export because from those humble beginnings of playing and coaching basketball in the old Thunderdome in Anne Street, he slotted straight into the national basketball scene, moving from the Cannons to the Australian Institute of Sport.

“The AIS offered me a position,” Hunt said before last Thursday night’s 90-minute session with local basketball coaches.

“I was head coach there until 1992 and was head coach of the national junior men’s side (the Emus) from 1985 to 1991 and assistant coach to the national men’s team from 1989 to 1993.

“It was great fun.”

At the 2000 Olympics he was part of the Australian basketball scouting group assisting the national team. 

He covered the 2004 Athens Olympics for ABC Radio and in 2012 he took a group of young AIS coaches to the London Olympics to give them an idea of what to expect in Rio.

“We gave them an Olympic experience to prepare them for Rio,” he said.

Now 62, he has no thoughts of retiring.

Indeed, his positions with FIBA don’t conclude until 2019.

While he’s still the head of the FIBA coaches, he’s just been appointed chairman of the FIBA technical committee, the first Aussie to hold that position and for which there is a major meeting in Geneva this week.

“We’re looking at the state of the game for referees, players and coaches,” he said.

“It’s a five-year appointment. One where we look at major rule changes, the style of the game and changes that might help the players.”

On Thursday night he had some spare time so asked the local Tamworth Basketball Association if they might want to use his services. 

They jumped at it and organised the session with and for local coaches.

“I will just talk about the principles of the game, how to attack pressing offences, trends of the game and how to become a more effective coach,” he said.

“It’s great to be a part of it all. 

“It’s always great to come home and see how well the game is going. 

“I’m always grateful to Tamworth for the opportunity it has provided me. 

“That support has been fantastic.

“It’s also great to be a part of the Men Of League. 

“When Ronnie Surtees (former THS First XIII coach)  rang me I jumped at the opportunity,” he said. 

“It’s such a worthy cause and to be involved with someone like Tim Sheens is fantastic.”

He was looking forward to Friday morning’s visit to McCarthy (his old school) with the Australian Kangaroos coach and then flowing that into a luncheon that involved an interview (conducted by Surtees) and then a “little Q and A”.

He was also interested to hear of the feats of James Psarakis, the talented teenage cricketer, who was also a guest speaker at the function.

It’s young men and women like Psarakis he has been coaching, in sport and life, for more than 30 years.

As a young coach in Tamworth he had as many as seven teams under his tutelage and loved every second of it.

“Tonight we’re having this coaches’ session to better the coaches so they can better the players,” he said.

“It’s important to grow and develop our young people not only in the sport but life as well.

“It’s a sense of right.The right thing to do at the right time. 

“It’s a great challenge.”

After which he  grabbed the hot chocolate he was consuming with this journalist and lobbed straight into the coaches’ session.

He was only too happy to help before flying out for Geneva and doing the same sort of thing on a global stage.

How lucky we are in Tamworth to have such selfless ambassadors.