Alan Hobkirk

Alan Hobkirk (born July 11, 1952 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a former field hockey player from Canada, who participated at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. There the striker finished tenth with the Men's National Team. Hobkirk participated in four Pan American Games between 1971 and 1983, winning a full collection of medals: one golden (1983 in Caracas), two silver (1975 in Mexico, 1979 in San Juan) and one bronze (1971 in Cali).

Hobkirk, described as Canada's greatest goal scorer during the decade of the 1970s, studied at the University of British Columbia, and has the remarkable honour of being the only UBC athlete to have been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, represent Canada at the Olympics and win the Bobby Gaul Award as UBC's most outstanding and inspirational male athlete. During his days at UBC he played nearly hundred international matches including the World Cup and Summer Olympics.

Hobkirk started play with the Thunderbird field hockey team in 1971-1972, scoring six goals in his first two games. At this time the 19 year old was well established as a player having played four years on British Columbia's Junior field hockey team and was now into his second season as player and captain with BC’s Senior team.

In 1974 Hobkirk graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Arts degree and was the year's recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship — a scholarship he accepted at Oxford University. In 1976-1977 Hobkirk returned to UBC, entering the faculty of law and once again donning the Blue and Gold on the hockey field. In 1978 while at UBC, Hobkirk was named captain of Canada's World Cup team, a team that did surprisingly well. In both the qualifying rounds and at the World Cup in Buenos Aires, the UBC Thunderbird striker was the team's leading scorer, recording two goals in Canada's 3-1 victory over Ireland and two goals in its 3-1 victory over defending world champion India.

Hobkirk continued to play for UBC while taking law from 1976 to 1979. Upon graduating in law from UBC in 1979, he was awarded the third jewel of the "Triple Crown", receiving UBC Athletics' prestigious Bobby Gaul Award as UBC's outstanding male athlete of the year.