University of British Columbia Athletics

Lee Wright, a 1966 Physical Education graduate, was one of UBC’s outstanding field hockey players and is a member of one of Canada’s notable families in sport. Lee played on some of UBC’s most impressive field hockey teams during the early 1960s, emerging as one of the top players in Canada.

From 1962 through 1966, with Lee being one of six Olympians on the Thunderbird team, the Blue & Gold under Coach Eric Broom won five consecutive Vancouver Field Hockey Championships which included an amazing 36 game winning streak. The Thunderbirds were recognized at this time as the best club side in Canada, playing in the competitive Vancouver league where a good deal of Canada’s field hockey talent existed.

The early '60s saw the concept of a Canadian National team for men’s field hockey come to fruition and it would be Thunderbirds such as Lee Wright, Victor Warren, John Young and Peter Buckland who would not only be inaugural members but integral parts of this team through the decade and beyond. Lee represented this country at two Olympics; 1964 in Tokyo, Canada’s first field hockey Olympics, and then again in 1976. He finished his career having played in more than 60 international matches.

Playing for this National team at the 1975 Pan American Games, Lee won a silver medal as did his wife Thelma, a middle distance runner at these Games and both a BC and UBC Hall of Famer.

In the words of Lee’s former teammate John McBryde, “From 1968 through 1975 Lee was the most experienced and highly capped player on the [National] team and the first to attain 50 caps… he served as vice-captain on several occasions. Lee was the only player from Canada’s 1964 Olympic team to play in the 1976 Olympics, a remarkable achievement as it spanned a period of 12 years.”

During the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Lee coached both the BC and Canadian men’s field hockey team and for over 30 years coached the Vancouver Hawks and its junior program.

One could say the Wright family is UBC’s “First Family” of Olympic sport. Lee’s father Harold was an Olympic sprinter for Canada, Lee’s wife Thelma was an Olympian and Hall of Famer while a third generation of Wrights, Thelma and Lee’s sons Anthony and Philip, both UBC graduates, are also Olympians. Five Olympians over three generations!

In recent years Lee has been supportive of the UBC men’s field hockey team in a mentoring role while he and his family made major contributions required to make the UBC campus’ Wright Field a reality in 2002. Both Lee and Thelma have been diligent supporters of this university.
 
Fred Hume, 2017