The UBC School of Kinesiology mourns the loss of its revered alumnus and professor emeritus, Dr. Bob Hindmarch, who passed away on February 20, 2021. His presence at UBC spanned more than 60 years, careers as an athlete, coach, director of UBC Athletics and professor of physical education in the School of Kinesiology. He was a dominant figure in both the School and in UBC Athletics.
While a student in UBC’s School of Kinesiology (then Physical Education), Bob was an outstanding all-around athlete playing Varsity football, baseball and basketball and upon graduating in 1953 was the recipient of the Bobby Gaul Award as UBC’s male athlete of the year.
From 1961 through to the end of the 1970s Bob taught in the UBC School of Kinesiology becoming a full professor in 1974. During the late 1950s, he served as UBC’s assistant football coach and director of intramurals. He would be asked to be General Manager and assistant coach of Canada’s 1964 Olympic hockey team, which was based at UBC, and which won the Olympic Bronze medal. Bob’s Olympic experience was followed by 12 seasons as head coach of UBC’s hockey team, the most successful era in team history. He coached only one losing season out of 12, setting a UBC hockey record with 214 victories.
As UBC director of Athletics from 1980 through 1990, it was Dr. Hindmarch’s Olympic connections and his creativity that fostered UBC’s relationships with universities and teams in Asia and Europe. As a result, he put UBC on the leading edge of university team tours together with exchanges of players, coaches and trainers. For decades UBC set the standard for travelling to and hosting teams from other countries.
The consummate builder and ‘people person’, Bob has been acknowledged in so many ways; he was Chef de Mission for Canada’s team at the 1984 Winter Olympics, was an inductee in the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, UBC Sports Hall of Fame and the BC Sports Hall of Fame. He was honoured with a UBC Alumni Achievement Award and earned the Order of British Columbia as well as the Order of Canada. His presence will be deeply missed amongst us all. Our sincere condolences go out to his family.