June Brown's extraordinary career in eight ball has seen her selected as the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre's Sports Hall of Fame inductee for 2023.
Brown was a prominent eight ball player who competed extensively at intrastate, interstate and national level in the '80s, '90s and 2000s.
The proud Palawa woman won her first eight ball tournament at the inaugural Oyster Cove Aboriginal Eight Ball Championships in 1989, her first of third championship wins at the event.
She was a member of several successful eight ball teams within Tasmania in the 1990s.
They include the Doghouse Eight Ball team (1992 and 1993) and the Hurricanes Eight Ball team, who won the Tasmanian Eight Ball Federation A grade teams state premiership championship in 1997 and the Southern Tasmanian Eight Ball Association, A grade division 1 teams premiership in back-to-back years in 1997 and 1998.
Brown also represented the New Norfolk RSL Eight Ball team who won the Northern Suburbs Eight Ball Association Division 1 premiership in the 1999/2000 season.
In 2002 she was selected in the Tasmanian Women's Eight Ball team.
Her team became the first Australian National Eight Ball Titles, Australian Women's Team Champions and the only team from Tasmania to do so.
Following her success at national championship level, Brown went on to win the best ladies player award in the NTEBA v STEBA series in 2003 and the most valuable women's player in the 2005/2006 Northern Suburbs Eight Ball Association series.
Ms Brown was inducted into the TAC Sport Hall of Fame at last week's Generation Cup, an annual statewide sporting event held by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.
The Sports Hall of Fame has been an integral component of the Generation Cup, with past winners acknowledged for their skills in sports including softball, football, cricket, golf and cycling.
The TAC Sports Hall of Fame began more than 25 years ago to acknowledge sporting skills in the community, with Ms Brown's induction seeing her join Tasmania Indigenous athletes who have excelled in netball, football, bowls, cycling, golf, boxing athletics, softball, cricket, basketball, darts and running.
They include Bobbie Dillion, Kenny Maynard, Roy Thomas, Smokey Michael Beeton, Brian Mansell, Clyde Mansell, Murray Mansell, Michael Mansell, Darrel West, Ambrose McDonald, Aaron Everett, Tarni Matson,Rick Tasman Maynard, Brian Summers, Neville Burgess, Pat Green, Laurie Lowery and Max Mansell.
