NAME: Ken Shields
UNIVERSITY: Victoria
CATEGORY: Coach
SPORT: Men’s Basketball
YEARS ACTIVE: 1965-1969 (student-athlete), 1976-1989 (coach)
HIGHLIGHTS:
Coached Victoria to seven consecutive CIAU titles (1979-1985)
Coached Victoria to 10 Canada West championships
Four-time CIAU Coach of the Year in men’s basketball (1976, 1979, 1982, 1983)
BIOGRAPHY:
Ken Shields presided over a men’s basketball dynasty at the University of Victoria, where the Vikes reeled off a remarkable streak of seven CIAU titles in a row from 1980 to 1986.
During Shields’ 13 seasons as Victoria’s head coach, his teams won 10 Canada West championships. Three times (1978-79, 1982-83, and 1983-84) the Vikes steamrolled through their regular season and playoff schedules without a loss.
Shields was named CIAU Coach of the Year four times (1976, 1979, 1982, 1983) and received the Canada West Coach of the Year award in 1979, 1983 and 1986. During Victoria men’s basketball’s seven consecutive championship seasons, the Shields-led program produced six CIAU MVPs and nine CIAU All-Canadians.
Following his tenure at UVic, Shields worked with Canada Basketball, coaching the national men’s team to a seventh-place finish at the 1994 FIBA World Basketball Championships. He later coached professionally in Tokyo and served as an assistant for the Australian senior men's basketball team at the 2004 Summer Olympics, followed by coaching stints with the Georgian men’s and Great Britain women’s national teams, in 2007 and 2010, respectively.
As a student-athlete, Shields played varsity basketball for two seasons each at the University of Calgary (1965-1967) and then the University of British Columbia (1967-1969). The Prince Rupert, B.C., native was named a WCIAA All-Star with the Dinos in 1967.
Shields’ coaching career began in 1969-70 with the UBC women’s basketball team, which won the Canadian Senior A women’s championship. The following season, Shields took over the men’s basketball program at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., where he would spend six seasons with the Voyageurs, winning OUA Coach of the Year in 1976 before returning west.
Shields was appointed as a member of the Order of Canada and has been inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame. B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame and UBC Sports Hall of Fame, and UVic’s Hall of Fame.
Shields was instrumental in establishing the University of Victoria's National Coaching Institute and he was the founding president of the Commonwealth Centre for Sport Development.