One of the best known names in Canadian basketball is 1969 UBC Physical Education (Kinesiology) graduate Ken Shields. Ken, along with his wife Kathy, both played Varsity Thunderbird basketball during the late 1960s with Ken quickly moving on to the coaching ranks co-coaching the UBC women’s Varsity basketball team in1969/70. In fact, this team which had Kathy on its roster, was both Canadian university and Canadian Senior ‘A’ Champions this season and is an inductee in the UBC Sports Hall of Fame.
Shields’ highlights are many. From 1978 through 1989 he was Varsity head coach at the University of Victoria, winning an amazing seven consecutive CIS men’s basketball titles and four CIS Coach of the Year awards. Despite being UBC graduates, both Ken and Kathy Shields were not just nationally acclaimed but have since become “icons” on the campus of the University of Victoria.
Ken also coached Canada’s men’s national team for five years and in 1986 was integral in the establishment of the Canadian National Coaching Institute. He was the founding president of the Commonwealth Centre for Sport Development and was instrumental in the creation of high performance sport training centres. He has also served as a guest basketball coach for five other nations during his career including Britain’s national team for the 2012 Olympics.
Shields has been recognized not only for his outstanding coaching record but for his leadership in Canadian university sports, his work behind the scenes with the Commonwealth Games and his work with the coaching fraternity. He is inducted as an individual into the University of Victoria, Basketball BC and Canadian Basketball Halls of Fame and is a member of the Order of Canada. In 2013 both Ken and Kathy Shields were inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame.
Written by Fred Hume, UBC Historian
