From Spanish heat to Huddersfield Heat.

Introducing Eduardo Perez y Medina, 33, from Gran Canaria, the third largest of the Canary Islands.

Eduardo, who now lives in Stocksmoor, is the heart and soul of Huddersfield Heat, the basketball club based at the university.

He says: “Basketball is one of the biggest sports in Spain, almost on a par with football.

“So when I came over to England it was natural for me to want to be involved with a local club.”

Over the past decade and a half Perez has played an active role in the development of Huddersfield Heat.

And today he is the club’s general manager and player-coach.

“I love the game,” he said. “So I’m happy to do whatever is required at the club.”

Eduardo grew up in Gran Canaria and played basketball from the age of four.

His father was from the island, but his mother hailed from Huddersfield – and everyone in his family played the sport.

Eduardo came to Britain in 1989 and started studying at Huddersfield in 1991.

He has had three spells as a student on the Queensgate campus.

Firstly he studied computing with a modern European language, then health and sports studies. Now he is studying physiotherapy.

He said: “I’ve been here on and off since the early 1990s.”

The basketball club was founded in 1991.

Eduardo was a key influence in the early years, as was Graham Timmins, a lecturer in politics at the university.

Graham was an up-and-coming coach and, in tandem with Eduardo, steered the infant club in the right direction.

Right from the off the club was known as Huddersfield Heat.

“We wanted the right kind of profile,” said Eduardo.

“I suppose we didn’t just want to be known as the Huddersfield University basketball side.

“We wanted a fashionable name that would put us on the map.”

Other local basketball sides include the Rawthorpe Cobras and Huddersfield New College.

Basketball was invented in the 1890s.

A Canadian PE instructor, Dr James Naismith, was working at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA.

He was looking for an energetic indoor sport to keep his students occupied during the winter.

And he experimented with ‘baskets’ attached high up on elevated boards.

Naismith was inspired by a Canadian game called Duck on a Rock. After chatting with some of his students he eventually decided on basketball as the name for his new sport.

We are told that the first official game of basketball took place in Naismith’s YMCA gym on January 20, 1892.

Thereafter, the game spread throughout the USA and Canada, being played mainly at YMCAs and high schools, with both men and women taking to the sport.

One sports historian has written: “The first pro league, the National Basketball League, was formed in 1898 to protect players from exploitation and to promote a less rough game.

“This league only lasted five years before disbanding. Its demise spawned a number of loosely organised leagues throughout the north-eastern United States.

“One of the first and greatest pro teams was the Original Celtics, organised about 1915 in New York City.

“The Harlem Globetrotters, founded in 1927, a notable exhibition team, specialises in amusing court antics and expert ball-handling.”

And by the 1950s a basketball-specific ball had been patented

Today Huddersfield Heat stage their training sessions and matches in the university sports hall.

And they do not restrict themselves to inter-university competition run by the British Universities Sports Association as they also cross swords in the prestigious National League.

In all, the Heat put out four teams – senior men’s, BUSA men’s, senior ladies and under-16 boys.

There are also plans for an under- 18s boys’ side.

All the teams play in green and white.

“We recruit well at the university, especially foreign students who come from all over – Spain, France, Greece, North America and Africa,’’ said Eduardo.

“But less and less high-pedigree sportsmen and women seem to come to Huddersfield.

“The university doesn’t have a massive profile in terms of sport and the facilities available could be better.”

At present, Huddersfield Heat face challenges on a number of fronts. Eduardo added: “I suppose the club is at a crossroads.

“We could push on and be the best we can be or we could actually struggle.

“The club is self-funded, so finance is always going to be a problem.

“We aren’t subsidised by the Students’ Union.

“We have two main sponsors – for which we’re very grateful – but we’re always on the lookout for more.

“The future is uncertain, but there is the possibility that we could relocate if we can find the right facilities.

“Our long-term aim has got to be a permanent home and steady financial help.”