The first title in A' Division united championship was lost in a painful way in summer 1960. AEK's 3-2 defeat in Nea Smirni in the last match day by Panionios, in conjunction with the unexpected 4-1 crashing of Olympiacos by Panathinaikos in Karaiskakis Stadium, resulted in a rematch between AEK and Panathinaikos that ended in a 2-1 win for the latter.
The following years, however, have been really important. AEK led by visionary Nikos Gkoumas, completed works in the Nea Filadelphia stadium and from early 1962 onwards, the club had a 40,000-seat stadium, which was large and modern for that time's standards, featuring natural turf and the horseshoe-shaped stand to the park side.
A few months later, 20-year old Mimis Papaioannou was signed and AEK, always led by its top scorer, Kostas Nestoridis, conquered, in 1963, its first Greek Championship, after 23 years! As in 1960, the championship was again decided in a playoff match; it was AEK this time, following a 3-3 draw with Panathinaikos in Nea Filadelphia, to win the title on goal aggregate.
Our coach was Jenő Csaknády of Hungarian-German origin, a pioneer in his ideas and method, who actually returned to AEK in 1967 and led the club to another title in 1968, coaching a side with some great new players (Kostas Nikolaidis, Papageorgiou, Kefalidis, Stathopoulos, Karafeskos, Balopoulos, Ventouris, Pomonis, Vassileiou etc.). In between these two championship titles, AEK had already won the 1964 and 1966 Cups, even without playing in the finals. In 1964, EPO (The Greek Football Federation) decided not to organize the semi-finals' second leg due to major riots that had occurred in the Panathinaikos-Olympiacos match in Leoforos Avenue stadium, while in 1966 Olympiacos decided not to show up for the match, as a means of protesting against the elongation of that year's campaign as a result of the semi-finals and final rescheduling "saga".