Not many UBC Kinesiology graduates have pursued a career in baseball and be honoured with induction into the Canada Baseball Hall of Fame. In fact only one KIN grad fits that complete description and he is 1968 graduate John Haar.
As a student at UBC Haar can be considered one of the Blue & Gold’s greatest athletes. He was a record-setting T-Bird soccer player on some great UBC teams. As a Varsity football player he was pursued by the BC Lions and actually received a contract offer to play for the Dallas Cowboys. But Haar’s best sport was baseball as he played on UBC’s baseball team during the 1960s under coach Frank Gnup.
After winning the Bobby Gaul Award in 1968 Haar was one of the few Thunderbirds of the era to pursue a professional baseball career playing in both the Yankee and Giants organizations. This evolved into coaching and the establishing of Canada’s National Baseball Institute which helped launch the professional careers of several local baseball players.
In 1999 Haar was inducted into the UBC Sports Hall of Fame, later the Burnaby Hall of Fame and in 2007 received induction into the Canada Baseball Hall of Fame located in St. Thomas, Ontario. John remains a baseball lifer, it’s in his blood and he has many interesting stories to tell. He continues to serve baseball in his early 70s as a major league scout.
Written by Fred Hume, UBC Historian
