The first-ever Canadian university men's basketball championship was hosted by Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario on March 15-16, 1963.
The four-team field, all champions of their respective regions, included Acadia University, Loyola College from Montreal, the University of British Columbia and the host Assumption Lancers.
The pre-tournament talk installed Acadia and Assumption as co-favorites, with the Lancers afforded a slight advantage as the hometown team.
Acadia was unbeaten in Maritime conference play with a 10-0 record, and overall, had compiled an 18-4 mark against all competition, including exhibition games against U.S. college teams. A balanced Acadia lineup included a mix of youth and experience. The Axemen were led by top scorer Richie Spears and their tall front line of 6'5 Pete Simmonds, 6'5” Jim Kreutzer and 6'10” Charlie Thomas.
Dan Parrinelli, who would start in place of the injured Ronnie Ayes, and Steve Konchalski were talented freshmen. John Olinto, Ian MacMillan and Paul Caron were valuable reserves. Arguably Acadia's most potent weapon was dynamic fifth-year head coach Stu Aberdeen, a superb tactician.
The Axemen entered the tournament having won 15 consecutive games and promptly ran their streak to 16 with a 55-36 semifinal victory over UBC. Spears, the top scorer in Canada in 1961-1962, led the way for Acadia with 22 points, and Thomas added 15.
Assumption scored an easy 103-44 win over Loyola in the other semifinal, setting up the Assumption-Acadia final that almost everyone had expected. The match-up would be a battle of contrasting coaching philosophies – the Lancers' 'blitz basketball' against Acadia's more deliberate style of play.
Defense ruled in the final, which turned out to be an uncharacteristically low-scoring contest, even for that era. Assumption erased a seven-point halftime deficit to edge the Axemen 53-50. Thomas and Spears again led the Acadia offense, this time with just 12 points apiece.
Spears and Parrinelli both made the tournament all-star team, and Spears, despite being a member of the runner-up team, was named Most Valuable Player of the first-ever national championship.
In hindsight, Assumption had managed to successfully take the Axemen off their game, but Acadia, for their part, had managed to keep the score low.
Acadia fans wondered if the result would have been different if Ronnie Ayes, normally a starter, and 6'5” junior Andy Kranack, who had missed the entire season due to injury, had been available to play.
After a narrow defeat, for Acadia, it was 'wait until next year'.
Contributed by John DeCoste '77. John's book, Living the Dream: The Acadia Axemen at the Nationals can be purchased by contacting John at jadecoste56@gmail.com