Clubs and players
Italian Virtus were led by the goalscoring of Frank Rosati and the goaltending of Zoltan Vigh. They also had imported forwards Agualla and Sfuza from South America.
Hakoah, the league’s new Jewish sponsored team, finished second in the league standings.
Review of the season
The opening game of the 1963 season was played on Sunday April 28, 1963. Olympia and Ukraina played to a 3-3 tie with Paul Dowhaluk scoring the tying goal for the Ukrainians with three minutes left of the game.
On June 6 Ukraina set a new NSL record by beating Macedonia 16-1. Eleven of the goals were scored in the second half. Macedonia scored their goal when the Ukraina was speaking to a friend behind the goal. Shortly after the Macedonia team decided to drop out from the league, citing that they no longer could compete with the wages offered by other teams. In an interview with the Canadian Press the Macedonia secretary, treasurer, manager and ticket seller Danny Giouchos said “we’ve been caught in a squeeze play. We can’t keep up with some of the other teams in buying and paying star players”. It was said that some players in the NSL received as much as $100 a week. Top players in the ECPSL were said to be earning more than $200 per week.
Italian Virtus secured the league championship by beating Ukraina on September 26. Italian Virtus finished the season With 27 points, one more than Hakoah who had 26 points.
Toronto Ukraina beat Toronto Hakoah in the NSL play-offs finals. Ukraina took the best-of-three series in two successive game. They won the opening game 2-0. In the second game they won 3-2 with Fred Patterson, Leo Dowhaluk and John Ihnatovych scoring the goals for Ukraina.
After the season it was rumoured that the league could lose possession of Stanley Park as they were struggling with huge debts. It was even a big question if there would even be a 1964 season with talks of the ECPSL creating a second division to accommodate more teams. Toronto Ukraina applied for a place in the ECPSL but were turned down.
After the season Hakoah dropped out from the NSL and tried to join the ECPSL. Instead they ended up playing the 1964 season in the Ontario Soccer League and in the 1965 they rejoined the National Soccer League.
Final standings Gp W L T GF GA Pts Italian Virtus 18 12 3 3 53 13 27 Toronto Hakoah 18 11 3 4 50 17 26 Toronto Ukraina 18 11 5 2 46 27 24 Toronto Hungaria 18 10 7 1 42 32 21 Olympia 18 7 8 3 32 40 17 Estonia 18 3 11 4 23 47 10 Croatia 18 0 17 1 17 87 1 Macedonia dropped out of the league during the season. Finals (Best-of-three series) October ??, 1963 Toronto Ukraina 2 Toronto Hakoah 0 October 20, 1963 Toronto Ukraina 3 (Fred Patterson, Leo Dowhaluk, John Ihnatovych) Toronto Hakoah 2 Ukraina won series in two straight games.
