Gryphon Gallery: Ricky Roberts

May 19, 2023

Alumni

Stuart Brambley, Archivist Stuart Brambley, Archivist photo

A member of Fraser House, he liked all sports—soccer, badminton, x-country, swimming, ice hockey—parties and loud music. In his graduating class yearbook (Grade 10 at Glenlyon), he states “You only live once so you might as well enjoy it,” and enjoy it he has.

“I started playing field hockey in Victoria when I was 13, but didn’t really think too seriously about it until I was 18 and spent some time playing with Moorebank-Liverpool Hockey Club in Sydney, Australia. It was after this, I thought maybe I should make a go of it.” Two years later, after returning to Vancouver and enrolling at UBC, he first represented Canada at the Junior Pan Am Games in Port of Spain, Trinidad and won a bronze medal.

After this first international honour, he established himself as a tough defender, commonly referred to as “The Hammer,” and enjoyed selections for the next 13 years.

1989 International Student Games, Sheffield.
1993 World Cup Qualifier, Poznan (7th).
1995 Pan American Games, Mar del Plata (2nd).
1996 Olympic Qualifier, Barcelona (6th).
1996 World Cup Preliminary, Sardinia (2nd).
1997 World Cup Qualifier, Kuala Lumpur (5th).
1998 World Cup, Utrecht (8th).
1998 Commonwealth Games, Kuala Lumpur.
1999 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Kuala Lumpur (4th).
1999 Pan American Games, Winnipeg (1st).
2000 Americas Cup, Cuba (2nd).
2000 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Kuala Lumpur (7th).
2000 Olympic Games, Sydney (10th).
2001 World Cup Qualifier, Edinburgh (8th).
2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester (6th).

International Field Hockey player Stephen Bissett stated that his biggest inspiration was Rick Roberts, his former coach. Rick showed him the meaning of hard work, sacrifice and dedication and gave him the inspiration to follow his aspirations. Tom Green, UBC Field Hockey alumnus said: “Looking back at sports, I think Rick Roberts would be a mentor of mine. Rick is a UBC alumnus and fellow national team athlete. Amazingly hard worker, but most importantly really supportive of younger athletes.”

After some earlier spells of professional field hockey in Germany, Roberts taught at St. George’s Senior School in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He taught English and coached the school’s field hockey team, as well as the Vancouver Hawks Premier Club team. Rico is also an accomplished 12-string guitar player and singer, loves performing Rocky Racoon, Time, and Like a Rolling Stone and actually co-wrote The Goose is in Malaysia theme song of the Men’s National Team at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

Sounds like he has been following his schoolboy credo of playing hard, living hard and certainly enjoying his successes along the way!