Born Giuseppe Antonio deBastiani to Pietro and Augusta, immigrants from Veneto, Joe grew up in
Ontario. After graduating from Haileybury Mining School, deBastiani worked in the mines for a year or so before taking part in the
1949 Ice Hockey World Championships and was regarded as one of the best wingers in the tournament. The following year he began attending
Michigan College of Mining and Technology and, after sitting out his freshman season (a common practice at the time), Joe joined the ice hockey team in 1950. He led the team in scoring as a sophomore and was selected as an
AHCA First Team All-American in
1950–51. The following year Michigan Tech became a founding member of the
Midwest Collegiate Hockey League (a forerunner of the WCHA) and while deBastiani performed well, the team could find no success and lost all 12 of their conference games. deBastiani was selected as
team captain for his senior season and helped the team to a modest improvement for which he was selected as team MVP. In addition, deBastiani switched from his usual position at
defence to
center for his final campaign with the team. As a result, deBastiani is the first person to be selected to two different positions for the
All–MCHA Teams. deBastiani graduated with a degree in
mechanical engineering and began working in that field after leaving Michigan Tech but after a year he had grown bored with the job and returned to mining. in 1954 he went to work for
Eagle-Picher in
Parral,
Mexico. He met his wife there and in 1961 he moved south to
Querétaro after starting his own contracting company. deBastiani eventually returned to Parral where he resided until dying in 2010 at the age of 80. deBastiani was inducted into the Michigan Tech athletic hall of fame in 2000. ==Statistics==