ed children with an opportunity to play. At the high school level the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation took control of administering interscholastic athletics in 1971 and made many changes which improved the league. One of the improvements was to change the provincial format to qualify eight teams instead of just four, which allowed for more excitement as underdog schools had a chance to upset higher ranked teams en route to the championship. This led to many first time winners as teams from around the province such as Liverpool and Amherst Regional won the championship in the early part of the decade. Another first time winner was Halifax West as traditional powerhouses from Queen Elizabeth and St. Patrick's faced greater competition. Another sign of the game's popularity was the fact that it was being played in the summer time. After watching rare broadcasts of NBA playoffs, in which one of the halftime events was pitting the greatest players in the game one on one, this format was adopted in Halifax and tournaments were held with the winner gaining bragging rights throughout the city. At the university level, Brian Heaney took over as coach of the St. Mary's Huskies. The former Acadia superstar took over the Huskies in 1971 and for the next eight years under his reign St. Mary's replaced Acadia as the premiere basketball squad in the province. During the decade St. Mary's won the national championships in 1973, 78, and 79 respectively and reached the finals on two other occasions. The Axemen remained highly competitive and won the nationals in 1971 and 1977. They were a formidable opponent for the Huskies, which resulted in one of the greatest intercollegiate rivalries in the province's history. "The two strong teams made the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association the strongest conference in the country for the first time as Acadia or SMU captured five national championships...