On this date 40 years ago, the eventual CCAA champs returned from a successful international tour with a keepsake that should have found its way to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The institute that the team represented bastardized it less than 20 years later.

On January 1st, 1985, the NAIT Ooks touched down at the Edmonton International Airport after going undefeated in an eight game exhibition tour of Switzerland. The most cherished of the items that the team brought back was a keeper trophy from the Altjahres Cup which the team won three days prior.

The final contest in the round-robin tournament featured teams that would raise the CCAA Championship Bowl and the University Cup at season's end. Of the nine meetings between the eventual CIAU and CCAA champions, the December 29th, 1984 contest between York University and NAIT stands alone as the only one to occur on foreign soil and to happen on an outdoor rink. The 5-3 win by the Ooks over the Yeomen was also the first time a CCAA member was victorious when the eventual champs met.

In 2017, team members of the 1984-85 Ooks reached out to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology about the trophy's whereabouts as they wanted it on display at their Alberta Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Athletic department representatives stated that the trophy was either thrown out or on the mantle of a fellow team member.  Neither of the statements was true as one team member cleared the name of another. The trophy was defaced and repurposed for a 2004 staff event and was on prominent display in the executive offices. Not only were the plate and emblem replaced on the trophy, the bowl was engraved. At the time of the discovery, one of the individuals who had no desire for the truth to be known was the athletic manager who happened to be the athletic director in 2004.

The 2004 incident is one of many egregious incidents by the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology towards the 1984-85 NAIT Ooks hockey team.  In 2007, when the team was placed on the NAIT Athletics Wall of Fame, one first name and two last names were misspelled on the plaque among other inaccuracies. For years, a plaque on the NAIT Athletics Wall of Fame of one of the team's forwards has not been on the Wall.

Despite repeated requests to have the trophy restored, the misspellings and inaccuracies on the NAIT Athletics Wall of Fame plaque of the 1984-85 Ooks team rectified, and the missing NAIT Athletics Wall of Fame plaque of the 1984-85 Ooks forward replaced, the institute has failed to act.

At the start of the 2024-25 season, NAIT Athletics added a patch to uniforms commemorating the 60th anniversary of competing in the ACAC. The institute has dropped the ball big time when it comes to preserving and acknowledging its history. Patching up is long overdue.

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