Athlete - Basketball
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993
Peter Simmonds, a 1963 graduate was one of Acadia’s all-time athletic heroes, being a varsity star in both basketball and track and field. From the fall of ’59 to the spring of ’63, he starred on numerous Maritime Intercollegiate championship teams, culminating his four-year stay at Acadia as captain of both varsity teams.
In basketball, he was an integral part of a developing program that ultimately made a serious challenge for National honours. Guided by the incomparable Stu Aberdeen, the Axemen opened the ’59-’60 season with such gifted performers as Pete Haley, Eugene Chatterton, Blair Dixon, Jim Mosher, Earl McCurdy, Dave Strong, and Simmonds in uniform. In playoff action that spring Dixon and Simmonds were the offensive stars in victories over St. Mary’s, but in action against St. F .X. and luminaries Foshay, Davenport, Moran, and Walsh, the Aberdeen-guided charges fell short. As a tribute to their fine basketball program, however, Coach Aberdeen and performers Chatterton and Simmonds were chosen to the Nova Scotia Intercollegiate All-Star Team for competition against the Quebec Huskies.
The following season saw Chatterton, Dixon, and Simmonds joined by newcomers Andy Kranack, Ian Hendry, Dean Hilts, Jim Pigden, Mike Tzagarakis, Richie Spears, and Warren Sutton. In the first-ever Bluenose Classic, the Axemen defeated Ricker 63- 55 as Simmonds, Spears, and Chatterton hit for the big numbers. In a 77-55 loss to Assumption, Warren Sutton, the tournament’s MVP, had 20 points. With playoff victories over Dalhousie, St. Mary’s, and U.N.B., the Axemen won their first tri-province basketball crown in twenty-eight years, losing but three games in twenty-three appearances.
They won the Bluenose Classic the following year with victories over Husson and Norwich as Peter shared offensive heroics with Sutton, Spears, and Charlie Thomas. Later, in a 94-50 triumph over McGill, Sutton, and Simmonds each collected thirty points. In playoff action, however, the Axemen -playing without their starry Warren Sutton -fell to St. F .X. in the deciding game.
In his senior year Peter was the captain of a star-studded lineup that included Thomas, Spears, Kranack, Mac Mill an, Steve Konchalski, Dan Parrinelli, John Olinto, Ronnie Ayers, Jim Kreutzer, and Paul Caron. Sweeping aside St. F.X. and St. Dunstan’s to win the Maritime Crown, the top-ranked Axemen represented the Conference at the Nationals in Windsor, Ontario -defeating U.B.C. convincingly but bowing to Assumption in the finals.
In track and field Peter Simmonds was equally effective, being a star on Fred Kelly-coached teams that were the best in the Maritimes. As tri-province winners during the ’60-’61 and ’61-’62 seasons, for example, he accumulated totals of eleven and thirteen points respectively gaining first-place finishes in the discus, shot and javelin events. In his senior year when the host Axemen placed second to U.N.B. Peter was again the dominant figure in the field events. Talented teammates on those championship teams included running sensations Mike Roach, Malcolm Murray, Dave Niznik, and Rowan Clattenburg and field luminaries Frank Bill, Bob Clattenburg, David Pick, Lowell Demond, George Kydd, Ian Belton, and a host of others.
It is indeed a pleasure to welcome for induction to Acadia’s Sports Hall of Fame Mr. Peter Simmonds…an outstanding contributor in many phases of campus life.