NAME: Dick Mosher
UNIVERSITY: UBC
CATEGORY: Coach
SPORT: Soccer
YEARS ACTIVE: 1963-1965 (student-athlete); 1986-2009 (coach)
HIGHLIGHTS:
12-time CW champion (7 men’s / 5 women’s)
Nine-time national champion (6 men’s / 6 women’s)
Three-time national Coach of the Year (1 men’s / 2 women’s)
2017 UBC Thunderbirds Hall of Fame inductee
BIOGRAPHY:
Dick Mosher’s equal success coaching both men’s and women’s soccer at UBC is unparalleled.
UBC soccer teams coached by Mosher won a dozen Canada West titles and amassed 14 podium finishes (nine gold, two silver, three bronze) in a combined 14 appearances at the national tournament. His six national titles with the UBC men are a record for a head coach in Canadian university soccer, while his three banners with the women's squad are tied for most all-time.
In nine seasons with the men's team and 16 with the women's, Mosher's teams posted a combined overall record of 244-54-50, including a record of 26-4-2 at national championships. He was named Canada West Coach of the Year a combined seven times (four with the women’s team, three with the men’s), and recognized nationally as Coach of the Year twice for women’s soccer and once for men’s soccer.
Mosher first set foot on the UBC campus as a student in 1963, spending the next three years as a centre-forward with the Thunderbirds' soccer team before moving on to the University of Oregon and later to Michigan to pursue his PhD in human growth and motor development.
He returned to UBC in 1975 as a professor in the School of Physical Education. In 1986, he became head coach of the T-Bird men's soccer squad and guided the team until 1994, when he coached the men’s and women’s teams in the same season, leading both to Canada West championships. He then shifted exclusively to UBC’s women program, remaining at its helm through 2009.
Mosher also served as academic coordinator of UBC’s athletic department and was the university’s interim director of athletics for the 1991-92 season.
In 2011, Mosher received the Jean-Marie De Koninck Coaching Excellence Award, recognizing outstanding contribution to interuniversity sport as demonstrated by long-term commitment and leadership as a coach of Canadian interuniversity sport.
He was welcomed into the UBC Thunderbirds Hall of Fame in 2017.