The 1963 & 1964 BRHS
Senior Boys Basketball Teams
The 1963 BRHS Senior Boys Basketball team started their season
with two exhibition losses.
1963 Team
BACK ROW, L-R: Terry Buckley (Manager), Tommy Beattie, Howard Jackson, Jack Walker (Coach)
FRONT ROW, L-R: Tommy Lycett, David Marshall, Michael Urquhart, David Jones.
The 1963 BRHS Senior Boys Basketball team started their season with two exhibition losses. In their own words they were “inexperienced and played poorly”. Discouraged, they went back to the drawing board with Coach Jack Walker. Armed with a new set of plays and rugged determination, they won their last exhibition game against West Kings by a score of 47-39. (there were no 3 point plays in 1963.)
The boys went on to win their next five games against Digby, Annapolis and Middleton to claim the Congress Cup. This advanced B.R.H.S. to the Valley Championship where they again met, and defeated, West Kings. Gaining momentum, the team travelled to Barrington to meet the South Shore Champions in a two game total point series. Two victories later the boys had outscored the Barons by a total of 147 to 93. This advanced the Bridgetown team to the Provincial Championships in New Waterford. In the semi-finals Bridgetown battled to a 55-50 win over Truro High School.
The following day they jumped-off with Queen Elizabeth High of Halifax for the right to be declared provincial champions. By all accounts it was the most exciting and thrilling game of the year but Bridgetown prevailed 58-45 and the Trojans brought home Bridgetown’s first Headmasters Basketball Provincial Championship.
As most athletes know, defending a championship is usually more difficult than winning the first one. Despite the confidence gained from the previous season, the champions, with some new players, once again struggled a bit in exhibition play, losing three times. These were their last losses of the season. In a repeat of 1963, the 1964 squad handily won the Congress Cup and met West Kings in a two game/total point series, for the Valley Championship. In Bridgetown for game one, the two teams played to a 46-46 tie in front of a packed gym. In game two, the Blue and White defeated West Kings in their home gym by a score of 50-43. This advanced Bridgetown to the Western Nova Scotia Championship against Yarmouth, defeating them by scores of 64-56 and 63-53. On to the Headmasters Tournament, this time hosted by Truro.
On April 1st Bridgetown met Mt. Carmel of New Waterford in the semi-finals and soundly defeated them by a score of 51-35. The following day, the team faced Truro to determine the Nova Scotia Championship. Tied 22-22 at half-time, the Bridgetown boys picked up their effort on both ends of the court and realized a victory, and their second consecutive Senior Boys Headmasters Provincial Championship, with a final score of 53 to 35.
Unless you are of a certain age you are probably not aware that until the end of the 1960s, provincial school championships were determined by the Headmasters format. It was a far more competitive format than we see in school sports today. Essentially, schools were not divided into divisions based on the size of their student populations. Schools of two hundred students had to compete against much larger schools for provincial championships. That meant there was one provincial champion in each sport, not the four that we are used to today.
By population alone, it was never a level playing field. Winning a provincial banner meant you truly were the BEST team in Nova Scotia.
This exceptional group of Bridgetown athletes accomplished that feat twice.
1964 Team
BACK ROW, L-R: Howard Jackson, Everett Jackson, David Jones, Tommy Beattie, David Marshall, Jack Walker (Coach)
FRONT ROW, L-R: Terry Buckley, Wesley Hubley, Gary Foster.