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Blue;Gold
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spring 2014

2014
SPRING
SUMMER
APRIL - AUGUST
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Blue;Gold
spring 2014
Blue;Gold
Editor Don Wells
Assistant Editor Steve Tuckwood
Designer Sharm Thiagarajah
the lineup
principal Photography Richard Lam
bob frid
wilson wong
BLUE+GOLD is published twice a year by the
UBC Department of Athletics and is distributed
free of charge to UBC Alumni and friends.
Opinions expressed in the magazine do not
necessarily reflect the views of the Department
of Athletics or the University.
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; features
10 women’s hockey: gaining
altitude
15 2014 sports
hall of fame inductees
LOCKERROOM 2014 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES BIG BLOCK CLUB
BLUE✛GOLD
GOTHUNDERBIRDS.CA
SPRING 2014
Volume 10, Issue 1 • Printed in Canada by RR Donnelley
Canadian Publications Mail Agreement #41473026
Scores, news & event info:
gothunderbirds.ca
On the Cover }
Graduating team captain Christi Capozzi finished
off her UBC career at the top of her game.

Message
from the managing director
Greetings from Point Grey to all
alumni and friends of the UBC
Thunderbirds.
As many of you know, the objective
of the recent UBC varsity sport review
was to create a framework to deliver
new levels of excellence with long term
financial sustainability. After receiving
much feedback, and carefully assessing
the potential of each team, we have
retained 24 teams and placed each
into three groupings (enhanced varsity,
continued varsity, and hybrid funding
varsity). Although grouping teams, given
the complexity and uniqueness of each
team’s landscape, is not perfect, this
approach begins to provide a common
structure for teams with similar potential
and needs. The framework helps us
make choices about where and how to
invest resources, and how to maximize
the return on those investments for
our athletes, our students, and our
community. There are three key
outcomes to highlight.
First, we now have valuable information
– never gathered before - on each team.
With comprehensive baselines and targets
now in place, we can measure the success
of our teams in a more rigorous and
objective manner. This sets a foundation
for a culture of accountability, where
targeted support and adjustments can
be made based on a team’s performance
against measures of success. Coaches
are leaders in performance, but they are
often left to operate in isolation and it
can be a lonely, difficult job. Support,
interaction, feedback - these are things
on which our coaches will thrive.
Secondly, we are now in a better
position to bridge the very real gaps
between Athletics and Recreation and
the University that were identified in
the 2012 review of the department. We
have formally dropped our ancillary
status, and will pursue opportunities to
create enhanced student learning and
engagement across campus. Over the
coming years, we will foster partnerships
with expert faculty in areas such as
sports administration, sport marketing,
event management, athlete training,
sport science and sport medicine. We
will work with our UBC colleagues to
help our community better connect with
UBC, offering sport and the Thunderbird
experience as a tool for growth in social
engagement and school spirit.
And finally, we can now sharpen our
focus upon being a more integrated
part of Canada’s sport community. Our
success in swimming through partnerships
with competitive swim clubs on the one
hand, and our national team program
on the other, is a superb example of how
UBC can be a part of the playgroundto-podium
continuum of athlete and
coach development. Our mandate has
formally grown beyond inter-university
championships to include progression to
national and professional teams. Over the
years, we will align with local, provincial
and national sport organizations including
the Canadian Sport Institute.
Looking to the immediate future, our key
areas of focus will be converting the review
information into action, consolidating
our visions and emerging with five-year
sport plans for each team; harnessing our
resources in varsity, recreation, facilities,
marketing, and finances to support our
vision with a review of our organisational
structure, roles and responsibilities, and
addressing the considerable challenges
we face over sustainability, including
fundraising to meet the income required to
support our 24 teams.
Although at times tumultuous, this process
has sparked our community to support our
teams in new and encouraging ways. I was
delighted, for example, to overhear one
of our alumni recently say: “I took what I
needed from my Thunderbird experience,
and for years, I walked away. Now, I’m
back.”
In support of the challenges and
opportunites before us, my hope is that
alumni and friends will remain engaged.
Sincerely,
Ashley Howard
Managing Director
UBC Athletics and Recreation
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BLUE;GOLD spring 2014

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Another big season is closing out for the
kids from Point Grey. At press time,
Thunderbirds teams had staked claims to
three CIS National Championships in 2013-14 and
one NAIA crown, with the track, baseball, softball,
golf, rowing, men’s field hockey and rugby teams
still in the hunt for more hardware down the home
stretch.
The women’s swim team cruised to a third straight
and CIS-leading 19th national title, ending with a
combined team score of 802.5 points, 397.5 points
ahead of the Montreal Carabins (405), setting the
CIS championship record for the largest margin
of victory. UBC’s Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson was
named both the CIS Female Rookie of the Year
and CIS Swimmer of the Year after winning three
individual events and picking up a total of five
medals over the three-day championship meet at
the University of Toronto. Other highlights included
two-time Olympian Savannah King claiming her
fourth straight 800 freestyle title on day three,
while Tera Van Beilen took top spot in both the 50
and 200 breaststroke and helped UBC’s 400 medley
relay team to a CIS championship record in the
final women’s race of the meet. Not surprisingly,
UBC’s Steve Price was honoured as CIS women’s
team Coach of the Year. On the men’s side, the
host Blues finished with 690 points to edge out the
Canada West champion T-Birds who racked up
609.5. UBC’s Coleman Allen was honoured as the
CIS male Swimmer of the Year with a seven-medal
performance. Allen anchored UBC’s Canadian
record-breaking 800 freestyle relay team while also
setting a new CIS championship mark in the 100
butterfly.
The most recent national title came on the heels of
fall championship victories for the Thunderbirds
well as a NAIA Cross Country crown.
UBC’s women’s cross country team were national
champions for a second consecutive year while
the men were eighth, good enough to give UBC a
combined team championship.
The T-Birds women’s volleyball team went into last
month’s CIS championship tournament looking
for a record seventh consecutive national title. But
the Manitoba Bisons, who had lost to UBC just
one week earlier in the Canada West championship
final, had other ideas. Reserving their finest play of
the season until the end, the Bisons cruised through
the tournament without losing a set, including a
3-0 win over UBC (25-22, 25-22, 25-20) in the
gold medal match. Ironically, UBC had defeated the
Bisons the week before in the Canada West final.
It was Manitoba’s first win over UBC in 18 starts
and its first national title in the sport since 2002.
The disappointing loss notwithstanding, UBC’s
Lisa Barclay added further honours to an already
impressive resume. The Brandon, Manitoba native
was named an All Canadian, a CIS Tournament
All-star and took home the Mary Lyons Award as
CIS Player of the Year. It was the fifth consecutive
year the trophy has been awarded to a UBC
player, following Shanice Marcelle (2013, 2011);
Kyla Richey (2012) and Liz Cordonier (2010).
Team mate Abbey Keeping was also named a CIS
Tournament All-Star.
Honour Role
Canada West women’s hockey scoring leader
Tatiana Rafter becomes the first UBC
Thunderbird to win the conference’s Player of
the Year award. The fourth-year forward from
Winnipeg was the major offensive force behind a
men’s soccer and women’s field hockey teams, as continued on page 6
spring 2014 BLUE;GOLD 5

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continued from page 5
UBC team that won 20 regular season games for
the first time in program history. With 20 goals and
18 assists in 28 games, Rafter finished the season
seven points ahead of her closest competitor in the
Canada West scoring race. She led the league in
goals, points and power play goals (9) and tied for
first in shorthanded goals (2) and game-winning
goals (6). Back in December, she scored 15 points
in seven games to help Canada win the gold medal
at the 2013 Winter Universiade in Trentino, Italy.
UBC head coach Deb Huband recorded her 400th
career win February 1 in Calgary with a 56-53
victory over the Dinos. After completing her 19th
season at the helm, the former national team
standout and 1984 Olympian’s overall record is
404-213, including three CIS championships. A
member of the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame,
Coach Huband had a similarly extraordinary
university playing career at Bishop’s University,
where she set an all-time CIS record for points in a
game with a 50-point performance in 1981-82.
UBC outside hitter Ben Chow was named a First-
Team All-Canadian, while setter Milan Nikic
was named a Second Team All-Canadian for
their outstanding play during the 2013-14 men’s
volleyball season. Chow was a crucial part of
UBC’s finely tuned offense this year, finishing tied
for fifth in the conference with 3.72 kills per set.
UBC led the conference in assists and kills this year
and finished second in team hitting percentage,
thanks in large measure to the stellar play of Nikic,
who finished second individually in Canada West
with 10.55 assists per set.
Men’s basketball team’s Kedar Wright was named
to the 2014 Canada West All-Rookie Team after
an impressive first season for the Thunderbirds.
Wright averaged eight points per game in 27
games this season. He was one of the best players
in the T-Birds three-game quarter final playoff
series against Alberta, averaging 18 points a game,
including a season-high 28 points in game two.
Bruchet Breaks Speed Record
Luc Bruchet won the men’s 3,000 metres of the
University of Washington Indoor Preview back in
January in a blistering time of 7:54.57 breaking not
only the 18-year-old UBC record but also the meet
record of 7:54.88 set by Irish Olympian Alistair
Cragg. Bruchet bettered the former UBC record
of 7:59.29, set in 1996 by two-time Olympian Jeff
Schiebler who holds multiple Canadian distance
records. Bruchet joins Olympian and UBC alumnus
Michael Mason in the record books for the
Washington event, as Mason set the meet high jump
record of 2.30m back in 2008. Bruchet has been
impressive all season long, with an NAIA 1500 title
and Canadian Cross Country Championship to his
credit back in November.
Previous page: CIS
Player of the Year
Lisa Barclay; CIS
Champion Swim
Birds; Canada
West Player of
the Year Tatiana
Rafter. This page:
Deb Huband
does the honours
after 400th UBC
career win; record
breaker Luc
Bruchet; Rugby
Birds bring the
Boot Trophy back
to UBC.
6
BLUE;GOLD spring 2014

Photo: Jack Prior, www.newtonsportsphotography.com
Clerc Receives Governor General
Commendation
UBC men’s soccer’s Paul Clerc was distinguished
as one of the top eight Academic All-Canadians
for the 2012-2013 season at a ceremony hosted
by Governor General David Johnston in Ottawa
last November. Of the more than 2,500 CIS
student-athletes who earn Academic All Canadian
status for achieving an academic average of
80% or better, the top male and female from
each conference are honoured as The Governor
General’s Academic All Canadian Commendation
Recipients. A three-time CIS Academic All-
Canadian in kinesiology, Clerc maintained an 84.5
per cent average in 2012-13, was named a Canada
West all-star and a tournament all-star after
contributing to a record 12th CIS Championship.
Rugby Birds Get The Boot
For the first time since 1996, the Thunderbirds
rugby squad claimed the Wightman Boot as series
victors over the University of Victoria in an annual
tradition that dates back to 1967-68. UBC defeated
the Vikes 29-16 in Victoria back in November to
win the first leg of the series and then followed
up with a 22-8 win at UBC January 18 to win the
two-game total-point affair 51-24. The Boot is
the annual home-and-home series named after the
late Brian Wightman, who coached at UBC from
1964 to 1967, and has featured many of Canada’s
greatest players over the years. At press time,
the Birds remained atop the Okanagan Springs
Brewery Division One league with a perfect 10-0
mark, but fell 33-24 at Witter Field in Berkeley,
California to the Cal-Berkeley Golden Bears in the
first leg of the near century-old World Cup series.
The home leg is scheduled for March 23 at the
Thunderbird Stadium.
Sport BC Awards Honour T-Birds
The 48th annual Sport BC Awards were handed
out March 5 at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver to
recognize B.C.’s top amateur athletes, coaches,
and officials in 2013. The winner in the University
Athlete of the Year category was UBC volleyball
alumna Shanice Marcelle, who wrapped up
her phenomenal career in 2013 by winning the
Canada West title, a fifth consecutive CIS national
championship, her second CIS Player of the Year
honour and the Jim Thompson Trophy at the
BLG Awards as the top university female athlete
in Canada. In the summer, Marcelle continued
playing with the senior women’s national volleyball
team and was the flag bearer for Canada at
the opening ceremonies of the 2013 Summer
Universiade in Kazan, Russia. UBC’s second
continued on page 8
spring 2014 BLUE;GOLD 7

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continued from page 7
Women’s hockey coach Graham Thomas was named 2013 Sport BC Coach of the Year; Sean Callegari struck out eight
to lead UBC to 3-1 early season win over Concordia Cavaliers.
nominee in the category was rower Maxwell
Lattimer, who finished fifth in the lightweight
men’s pair event with partner Evan Cheng at the
2013 World Rowing Under-23 Championships.
Back in November Lattimer was honoured as the
Canadian University Rowing Association’s Male
Athlete of the Year for an outstanding performance
at the Canadian University Rowing Championships
in Montreal, which included a gold medal and two
silvers.
Graham Thomas, head coach of the women’s
hockey team, took home honours for Male Coach
of the Year. In his first season at the helm of the
T-Birds in 2012-13, the Calgary native led the team
to a 17-7-4 record, an unprecedented improvement
from the 1-21-2 campaign the year before. Thomas
guided his squad to a Canada West title in the postseason
and a berth in the CIS championship, where
UBC finished fifth. His debut efforts earned him
Coach of the Year honours from both the Canada
West conference and the CIS.
Not surprisingly, the CIS champion UBC men’s
soccer team was named Team of the Year. The
Thunderbirds went 19-1 in non-conference,
regular season and playoff action in 2013 and
swept every major Canada West individual award.
After clinching a long-overdue CIS Coach of the
Year title, head coach Mike Mosher guided his
team to a 3-1 win over Laval in the championship
final, a record 13th national championship for the
Thunderbirds. It was the first time Mosher has won
the honour in his 18 years as head coach at UBC.
Midfielder Reynold Stewart and defender Paul
Clerc were named CIS First Team All-Canadians.
Still Ahead
The Thunderbirds baseball team went 7-3 in a
pre-season schedule that saw numerous weather
related cancellations both at home and on the road.
The 28-game NAIA regular season schedule goes
March 7 to April 19 with all home games played
at Thunderbird Park. The NAIA West tournament
goes May 2-5 in Portland and the NAIA World
Series May 23-30 in Lewiston, Idaho. The 2014
schedule includes a pair of home and away double
headers against Thompson Rivers and Okanagan
College.
The women’s softball team faced similar weather
cancellations and a postponement of a home
March 1 double header versus SFU, but is assured
of competition in mid-March at the Tuscon
Invitational. The T-Birds are scheduled to face
SFU in a double-header at Beedie Field April 9. For
schedule updates, visit gothunderbirds.ca.
UBC’s men’s and women’s golf teams are in full
swing and looking ahead to NAIA Championships
May 20-23. The women narrowly missed out
on the NAIA title last year with all five UBC
tournament competitors named All Americans.
Both teams will then travel to Winnipeg for the
Golf Canada University Championships June 3-6
where the men’s team will be looking to defend
their 2013 national championship. ;
8
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lock
News ; notes from the big block club
Former UBC defensive
coordinator Bob Laycoe
was honoured by alumni at
annual TFA Gala; Former
UBC coach Bruce Enns
was welcomed back to War
Memorial Gym by alumni
and coach Kevin Hanson.
A
good-sized crowd of friends and alumni
of UBC football were on hand at last fall’s
Thunderbird Football Association Gala at
Richmond’s River Rock Resort. Various awards
were handed out, graduating seniors were saluted,
and UBC media relations manager Dan Elliott
hosted a panel discussion featuring fellow UBC
football alumnus and former CFL linebacker Javier
Glatt, BC Lions alumnus Brent Johnson and current
BC Lion and Harvard grad Marco Iannuzzi. But
hands down, the highlight of the evening was
the poignant Thunderbird Football Hall of Fame
induction of former defensive coordinator Bob
Laycoe, who guided some of the stingiest defensive
units in CIS history, including those that helped win
Vanier Cup championships for the Thunderbirds in
1982 and 1986. Laycoe went on to a successful run
as head coach at the University of Toronto where he
won a Vanier Cup in 1993.
A sizable contingent of basketball alumni turned
out to welcome former coach Bruce Enns back to
War Memorial Gym at a January 10 game against
Saskatchewan at which he was honoured with a
presentation from head coach Kevin Hanson. Enns
came to UBC from the University of Winnipeg in
1985 and patrolled the T-Birds’ sideline until 2000.
With a roster that included Hanson as a fifthyear
point guard, sharp shooter Paul Johannson
and a trio of talented Okanagan freshmen named
Mike Clarke, Al Lalonde and J.D. Jackson, Enns
guided the Thunderbirds to an unforgettable 1987
Canada West Championship victory over Ken
Shields’ Victoria Vikes, ending the Vikes sevenyear
reign as CIS title holders. Former Bobby Gaul
Award winners Perrie Scarlett and Ken Morris
were among the cadre of Enns’ former players who
showed up for the reunion, which included a pre
and post-game reception. The highlight of Enns’
visit, according to Hanson, was an articulate and
inspirational locker room speech after the Birds’
Thursday night practise. Enns led the T-Birds to a
total of four Canada West men’s basketball titles
and four appearances at the CIS men’s basketball
national championship tournament.
UBC’s women’s team held a reunion of its own
at the final regular season tilt on February
15, which saw the T-Birds secure home court
advantage for the conference quarter-final with
a win over the Vikes. At the end of the game, the
members of Coach Deb Huband’s 2003-04 CIS
championship-winning team were honoured ten
years after they won the school’s first national
title in three decades and sparked two more
national championships in a five-year span.
Those in attendance included the trio grande of
Erica McGuiness, Julie Little and Cait Haggarty;
continued on page 18
spring 2014 BLUE;GOLD 9

Two decades ago when a group of UBC students banded
themselves together to resurrect a varsity women’s hockey team,
it would have been difficult to predict what was in store for
the women’s game at the university level, let alone how a UBC
team might fare. Now with back-to-back seasons of stellar play
boosting their confidence, can the high-flying Thunderbirds
maintain altitude at the summit of CIS women’s hockey?
photo by martin dee
10
BLUE;GOLD spring 2014

BELIEVE IT
by Don Wells
spring 2014 BLUE;GOLD 11

‘‘You can set goals all you want but you need the
Prior to the first game of the 2012-13
season, the founder of UBC’s modern
women’s hockey program stood in its
dressing room to share thoughts on the
team’s humble origins. She reminded them to
appreciate the full-time coaches, the modern
arena and other amenities that previous teams did
not have, certainly not the short-lived women’s
team of the 1970s, nor the team of six players in
wool skirts that represented UBC in its inaugural
1915-16 academic year. But as she spoke about
99-year-old Evelyn Lett, one of the original six,
being so enthused about a women’s team starting
anew in 1994 that she insisted on making her way
to center ice to drop a ceremonial face-off puck,
Laura Bennion suddenly felt a tinge of emotion.
And the room was so silent you could have heard
a tear drop.
Minutes later, the Thunderbirds hit the ice to
begin the most successful season in team history,
one that culminated in a first-ever Canada West
championship. After an unprecedented 20 wins the
following year, there can be no doubt that the 21st
century version of the team constitutes the newest
beacon of success within Canada’s most decorated
varsity athletics program. Bennion is thrilled to
acknowledge that something truly special has
evolved from the group that she spirited into
play in a little-known club league back in 1994,
and theorizes that the sweet taste of triumph has
instilled the most essential competitive asset of all.
“The girls have started to believe in themselves,”
said Bennion in reference to the recently concluded
20-6-2 regular season, in which a solitary shootout
loss spoiled an otherwise perfect mark on
home ice. “I think there has been a cultural shift
on the team. You just need a little taste of success
and confidence and it builds momentum. Once
you have a couple of years of a winning culture, it
becomes easier to keep it going.”
While success came quickly in the sport at other
schools after official CIS play began in 1997, it has
been a long road up for UBC. But if you ask head
coach Graham Thomas how the breakthrough
occurred shortly after his arrival in 2012 from
a job as an assistant at Syracuse University, he
begins to shift nervously in his chair. Modest and
deeply respectful of coaches and players who went
before, he insists that the dramatic turnaround has
little to do with him, and much more to do with
the current crop of Thunderbirds and the solid
foundation he inherited.
“The girls have done well, they’ve worked really
hard for it,” says the 32-year-old Calgary native.
“But our success is also due to the support the
program has had from a lot of people over the
years; players and coaches before us, the athletic
department, parents and donors. There is also
a fantastic group of men’s team alumni who
have provided financial support for scholarship
endowments.”
The donors are comprised of a growing list
of team alumni and a handful of community
supporters, including prominent philanthropists
Julie Hamilton and Lois Mitchell. The alumni
group – “the Old Birds” - consists of a cadre of
senior-aged recreational hockey players, including
former athletic director Bob Hindmarch, former
Dean of Agriculture Jim Richards and Engineering
alumnus Keith Morrison, who secretly allowed
Bennion to play as a seven-year-old on a boys
team he coached in the archaic no-girls-allowed
era of minor hockey. It was round about that
same time that Hindmarch, then UBC’s men’s
coach, unsuccessfully advocated for a women’s
team that quietly folded in the late 1970s. Not
surprisingly, many years later when Bennion - then
an undergraduate Science student and today a
Calgary physician with strong ties to Canada’s
Olympic team - resurrected the team, Hindmarch
encouraged the Old Birds to lend their support.
“We played against them in scrimmages for a
while, but then they started to embarrass us,” he
laughs. “They were such incredible kids and it was
great fun for everybody.”
But if a transformational shift has occurred in
the present day, it would be unreasonable to
believe the doubting Thomas when he contends
it has little to do with him, especially after he
reveals details of a collegial management style that
appears sharply focused on altering team culture.
“One of the most important things we
implemented was a code of conduct that increased
12
BLUE;GOLD spring 2014

group to agree on why it’s important to them.
’’
expectations and clearly laid out roles and
responsibilities of the athletes, the standards
we want to hold them to and the foundations of
what we want to develop,” says Thomas, whose
incessant use of “we” exemplifies his reverence for
assistant coach Kim Coates and two extraordinary
volunteers in Ohio State graduate Barbara Bilko
and renowned goaltender coach Pasco Valana.
“It’s basically a contract that we asked them to
agree to and sign.”
What the code includes, he explains, is everything
from punctuality and dressing room etiquette to
use of alcohol and academic standards, proudly
noting that the team’s average GPA climbed a full
eight points in 2012-13 over the previous year.
“Part of the implementation of the code meant
talking to the players about why it’s important to
do the things we said we would do. You can set
goals all you want but you need the group to agree
on why it’s important to them. So we had a team
meeting and discussed it. Out of that came a team
identity and culture that everyone has bought in
to. When you get everybody on the same page like
that, it can be very powerful.”
Whatever was said and agreed upon was
sufficiently powerful to propel the Thunderbirds
from a team that had never won more than
eight games in a season to one with an overall
record of 46-19-6 in Thomas’ two seasons
behind the bench, including the 2013 Canada
West championship over Hayley Wickenheiser
and the defending CIS champion Calgary
Dinos. Individually, the honour
role is similarly encouraging.
Graduating team captain
Christi Capozzi and
2014 Canada West
Player of the Year
Tatiana Rafter
helped
Canada
claim its
third straight
Universiade
gold
medal
during the mid-season break in December. Former
Olympic team goaltender Daniel Dube was named
a First-Team All Canadian in 2013, while Rafter
and the league’s top scoring blue-liner Sarah
Casorso took two of six First Team All Canadian
spots in 2014. Thomas meanwhile marked his
debut season at UBC by being named 2013 CIS
and Sport BC Coach of the Year.
But perhaps the best news of all is on the
recruiting front. Thomas says that UBC’s strong
academic reputation and its stunning campus
have always helped to attract bright and talented
players, but the team’s success has opened the
floodgates. This year’s recruiting class features
four blue chip prospects from four different
provinces, including a potential marquee player
named Logan Boyd from Burlington, Ontario.
A perpetual honors student who aspires to study
Medicine, the 6’1” forward had offers from
several NCAA schools, including Harvard.
Securing Boyd, according to Thomas, was aided
by a recent change in CIS rules by which
the ceiling for scholarships has been
raised as part of a pilot project
to address the annual
flow of
spring 2014 BLUE;GOLD 13

The Thunderbirds defeated the defending CIS champion Calgary Dinos to win the 2013 Canada West Championship,
and repeated the victory a year later in the 2014 conference quarter-finals.
Canadian student-athletes to US schools.
“That rule change enabled us to recruit Logan,
and I give full credit to our UBC president for
getting it passed,” says Thomas, noting that the
highly contested rule change was the result of the
direct efforts of UBC president Stephen Toope,
who led a task force to challenge the status quo in
CIS sport. The changes included elimination of the
“transfer rule,” which required Canadian students
wanting to transfer to a CIS program from an
NCAA school to sit out for a year. “It will take a
while before we’ll see a dramatic difference in the
number of Canadians going to the States, but there
is no question this is a big step forward. Someday
I would love to see a four team NCAA-CIS
crossover tournament. That would be incredible.”
Incredible is also the word for the recent ascent of
the Thunderbirds, for whom the CIS rule changes
could not have come at a better time. Looking
ahead to the longer term, the sum total of all
the things currently going right for UBC’s team
provide ample reason for optimism. Seasoned
with a newfound measure of confidence, Thomas
and his bright-eyed charges have a lot going for
them as they set their sights on a CIS title, most
importantly a strong and shared belief that it is
now entirely within reach. ;
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BLUE;GOLD spring 2014

sports hall of
2014
INDUCTEES
The 2014 class of inductees into the UBC Sports Hall of Fame
will be comprised of five of the most extraordinary athletes in the history of the varsity
program, two of its most successful teams and the student-founder of the Thunderbirds
women’s ice hockey team.
The April 1 induction promises to be a big night for UBC football with the induction of
former UBC linebacker and punter Kevin Konar in the Athlete category and the 1986
Vanier Cup Champion Thunderbirds in the Team category.
The night will also serve as a reminder of UBC’s contributions to Canadian Olympic
teams, with 2000 Olympic Swim Team member and 1998 World Championships and
Commonwealth Games double medalist Mark Versfeld entering the Hall of Fame along
with rower Laryssa Biesenthal, who won eight international medals after graduating from
UBC in 1995, including bronze medals at both the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games.
Tammy Crawford, the 1993 CIS women’s soccer MVP and former national team
member, will also enter the Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 along with rugby legend Robert
“Ro” Hindson. Hindson played at UBC from 1972 to 1976 and went on to a lengthy
international career that saw him make 31 appearances for Canada, including the inaugural
Rugby World Cup in 1987.
The accumulated members of the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 women’s field hockey teams,
which won back-to-back CIS national championships in 1998 and 1999, will enter the Hall
of Fame in the Team category, while Laura Bennion, the founder and former player and
coach of UBC’s women’s ice hockey team will enter in the Builder category.
The inaugural UBC Sports Hall of Fame induction was held in 1993. Since that time a
total of 86 former athletes, 24 teams and 33 builders of sport have been inducted for
accomplishments dating as far back as the early 1920s.
The 2014 induction will take place at the annual 2014 Big Block Awards and Sports Hall
of Fame Dinner April 1 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
}}
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Athlete Inductees
Laryssa Biesenthal
(Rowing 1990-95)
A former track athlete, Laryssa Biesenthal took
up rowing when she entered UBC in 1990. She
attended her first World Championship in 1995
where alongside Kathleen Heddle, Marnie McBean
and Diane O’Grady, she won a silver medal in the
quadruple sculls event. The same foursome won
bronze medals at the 1996 Olympics. In total,
Laryssa won five World Championship medals, two
Olympic medals (including a bronze in the Eights in
2000) and a gold medal in the 1999 Pan American
Games in double sculls.
Tammy Crawford
(Soccer 1993-96)
After a season on Canada’s national team, Tammy
Crawford entered UBC in 1993 and promptly led
the Thunderbirds to a CIS National Championship.
Along the way she led the entire Canada West
conference in scoring (seven goals in 10 games) and
was named a first-team All Canadian. After the 2-1
victory over Dalhousie in the championship final,
she was awarded the Gunn Baldursson Memorial
Award as CIS Championship MVP. She played for
Canada again in the summer of 1994 and rejoined
the Thunderbirds that fall as team captain, leading
UBC to an undefeated season, a return trip to
the CIS championships, and a silver medal finish
following an overtime loss to Dalhousie in the
championship final.
Robert Hindson
(Rugby 1972-76)
The highlight of Robert Hindson’s UBC playing
career was in the 1974-75 season, in which he
helped lead the Thunderbirds to a record of 20-2,
including a Western Canadian Championship and a
victory over the University of California Berkeley in
the annual World Cup two-game total-point series.
For their efforts, the Thunderbirds were honoured
as the 1975 Sport B.C. Team of the Year. Robert
Hindson’s international career began in 1972 after
his freshman year. When he retired in 1990, he had
accumulated a Canadian record 31 international
caps. Two of those caps were earned against Ireland
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BLUE;GOLD spring 2014
and Wales at the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987.
His remarkable career was officially recognized by his
inductions into the BC Rugby Hall of Fame in 2011 and
the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.
Kevin Konar
(Football 1976-79)
Kevin Konar played middle linebacker and punter
at UBC and was a member of two Canada West
championship teams (1976 and 1978) and a member
of the first UBC team to appear in the Vanier Cup in
1978. He was named a Canada West All-star in 1977,
78 and 79 and an All Canadian in 1978 and 79. A cowinner
of the 1980 Bobby Gaul Award (UBC’s most
outstanding graduating male athlete), he was a firstround
CFL draft pick by the BC Lions, with whom he
played 10 seasons as a middle linebacker and was twice
named a CFL All-star. As a BC Lion, he played in three
Grey Cup Games, and won a Grey Cup championship
in 1985. A durable member of the Lions’ defence, he
missed only one game in 10 seasons of professional
football. He was named to BC Lions Wall of Fame in
2008.
Mark Versfeld
(Swimming 1997-2001)
Mark Versfeld was a backstroke specialist on four
consecutive CIS Championship teams (1998, 99, 2000,
2001). Among the many highlights of his brilliant CIS
career, he was a member of UBC's 1999 400-metre
medley relay team (with Jeremy Jaud, Garret Pulle and
Jake Steele) that defeated the University of Calgary's
famed foursome of Chris Renaud, Russell Patrick,
Curtis Myden and Etienne Caron, setting a CIS
record in the process. The 1998 Sport BC University
Athlete of the Year was a national team member
from 1996 to 2001 and an Olympian in 2000. At the
1998 World Championships, he won a silver medal
in 100-metre backstroke and bronze in 200-metre
backstroke. He won gold in the same two events at
the 1998 Commonwealth Games. An honours student
in the Faculty of Arts, Mark was named the top male
Academic All-Canadian in the Canada West conference
in 2000-2001.
sports
20
INDU

team Inductees
hall of
football
1986
Coached by Frank Smith, the Thunderbirds went
undefeated in regular-season play and outscored
Canada West opponents 237-82. After a crushing
49-3 victory over the Calgary Dinos in the Canada
West Championship, the Thunderbirds travelled to
Lennoxville, Quebec where they narrowly beat the
Bishop’s Gaiters 32-30 in the Churchill Bowl to win
a berth in the Vanier Cup. One week later Smith’s
Thunderbirds claimed UBC’s second-ever Vanier
Cup championship with a thrilling 25-23 win over
the Western Ontario Mustangs. A total of nine
UBC players were named Canada West All-stars,
while three were named First Team All Canadians
(Jack Beetstra, Mark Norman, Leo Groenewegen).
Defensive back Mark Norman was a finalist for the
Hec Crighton Trophy (CIS Most Outstanding Player)
and the winner of the President’s trophy (CIS Most
Outstanding Defensive Player). Seven members of
the team went on to play professional football in the
CFL.
women’s field hockey
1998-2000
The Thunderbirds field hockey team during this
two-year period posted identical records of 14-1-
1 in each season on route to CIS Championship
victories in 1998 and 1999. Goaltender Ann
Harada was named a First-Team All Canadian
and a CIS Championship all-star in 1999. Jennifer
Dowdeswell was named to both the 1998 and 1999
CIS Championship all-star teams, and coach Hash
Kanjee was honoured as 1998 CIS Coach of the
Year. Dowdeswell was subsequently honoured as
the winner of the Marilyn Pomfret Award (UBC
Female Athlete of the Year) in 2001 while team
mate Stephanie Hume was the award’s co-winner in
2002. Remarkably, a total of seven team members
from these two seasons represented Canada in
international competition (Laura Balakshin, Kim
Buker, Ann Harada, Stephanie Hume, Lesley
Magnus, Mo O’Connor, Emily Menzies).
builder Inductees
14
CTEES
Laura Bennion
After earning a degree in Journalism at Boston’s
Northeastern University and playing three seasons
of NCAA division one hockey, Laura Bennion
enrolled in UBC’s Faculty of Science. In the spring
of 1994 she made an appointment to see UBC
Athletic Director Bob Philip to ask for $10,000 so
she could start a women’s hockey team. Six months
later, with Bennion as coach, a determined group
of students hit the ice for the inaugural season.
As she had assured Philip, the team soon moved
up to increasingly more competitive levels of play,
prompting her to surrender the coaching role so
that she could join the team as its first-line centre.
The year after she graduated, the modern coastto-coast
CIS league became a reality, with seven
Canada West teams competing in a 16-game
schedule leading up to playoffs and the national
championship. Twenty years following the meeting
with Bob Philip, UBC’s women’s hockey team is
well-entrenched and one of the most competitive
teams in the country. Laura Bennion’s induction
in the Builder category represents just the second
time that an inductee has been honoured in that
category for accomplishments as a student. ;
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lock
News ; notes from the big block club
continued from page 9
scoring and rebound leader Kelsey Blair and
current assistant coach Carrie Watson (Watts).
“They’re a special group,” said Huband. “They’re
the team that made the push to get us to the next
level, from being a good team to a great team and
earn that national championship.”
UBC swim team alumni were in reunion mode too
recently, with a rare get-together that honoured
the three primary builders of Canada’s most
decorated university swim program. University of
Washington multi-sport letterman Jack Pomfret,
who coached UBC’s swim teams from 1962
to 1975, was on hand as distinguished elder
statesman. A member of the BC and UBC Sport
Halls of Fame, Pomfret coached six Western
Canadian champion swim teams at UBC and
was named 1971 CIAU Swim Coach of the Year.
In addition to leading the construction of the
UBC Aquatic Centre in the early 70s, he coached
many of his swimmers to international-level
competition, including Olympians Ken Campbell,
Karen James, George Smith and Bill Mahony.
Fellow BC Sports Hall of Fame member Jack
Kelso was also honoured on the occasion for his
contributions to UBC swimming. Still the holder
of world records for his age category in masters
swimming events, the Ocean Falls native took
over as swim coach from Pomfret in 1975 and
guided the UBC women’s team to back-to-back
CIAU championships in 1985 and 1986. A former
faculty member along with Pomfret in the UBC
School of Kinesiology (then Physical Education),
Kelso recommended upon his retirement as coach
that UBC pursue an up and coming international
level coach named Tom Johnson, who since 1979
had guided the Pacific Dolphins Swim Club. On an
already special occasion, the combined presence of
Pomfret, Kelso, Johnson and their former athletes
poignantly symbolized the cohesive culture that
has been at the heart of over 50 years of academic
and sport excellence on Point Grey.
Women’s hockey team kicked off the season with alumni
event. Left to right, Doug Mitchell, alumna Kira Sinow,
Lois Mitchell, alumnae Laura Bennion, Jen Cham and
Monica Eickmeier, head coach Graham Thomas.
In Memoriam
Last month the UBC sport community was
shocked to learn that Sonya Lumholst-Smith
passed away after a short illness on Christmas Day
in Chapala, Mexico. A former dance instructor in
the UBC School of Kinesiology, she branched out
in numerous ways over a 25-year UBC career as
an administrator and leader of countless initiatives
in sport and physical education, including a lead
role in the development of the Student Recreation
Centre. Sonya was predeceased in 2012 by her
long-time friend and partner Bob Morford, a
former director of the UBC School of Kinesiology
who was inspired to pursue a scholarly career
by former UBC rugby coach Max Howell, who
passed away February 3 in Brisbane, Australia.
A member of the UBC Sports Hall of Fame, Max
taught at UBC and coached rugby from 1954 to
1961.
UBC rowing alumni were recently saddened by
the loss of Peter Yates at his home in Cobble Hill,
BC on December 10. A graduate of the School of
Kinesiology and Faculty of Education, Peter was
a former varsity rower and coach who went on
to become a much admired teacher and rowing
coach at Shawnigan Lake School. Rosalind (Rosy)
Lecky will also be fondly remembered by UBC
rowing alumni for her patronage of philanthropic
endeavours that included the UBC John M. S.
Lecky Boat House and the UBC Women’s Rowing
team. Rosy Lecky passed away February 25 at
North Shore Hospice.
18
BLUE;GOLD spring 2014

UBC assistant swim coach Brian Johns (far left) and head
coach Steve Price (far right) flank the honoured trio of
Tom Johnson, Jack Pomfret and Jack Kelso at alumni
event. Below right: swim alumnus and Rhodes Scholar
John McArthur was keynote speaker at 2014 TELUS
Millennium Scholarship Breakfast.
Former UBC soccer great Bill Popowich died after
a lengthy illness on February 22. A teacher for
over 35 years and principal at New Westminster
Senior Secondary School, Bill devoted almost his
entire adult life to amateur sport coaching and
volunteering, including his key involvement in the
BC High School Boys Basketball Championship.
He was inducted in the Builder category of the
Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
Former UBC Professor, Dean of Commerce and
swim coach Peter Lusztig’s distinguished journey
ended on January 26. Born May 12, 1930 in
Budapest, he came to UBC as a student in 1948.
Before leaving for graduate school, he coached the
UBC swim teams in the years leading up to the
construction of the Commonwealth Games Pool,
thereby helping to establish the foundation of
one of Canada’s most successful university swim
programs.
The family and friends of BC and UBC Sports
Hall of Fame member Reg Clarkson, who
passed away in 2012, have established the
Reginald Clarkson Memorial Award in Athletics
recognizing excellence in leadership and
academics. In the spirit of Reg’s lifelong passion
for participation in team sports and for lending a
helping hand to others who needed it, preference
will be given to student-athletes who demonstrate
financial need. ;
spring 2014 BLUE;GOLD 19

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