Hall of Fame
Field Hockey, Swimming
Builder
PHE 7T1
Liz Hoffman has been a driving force behind the evolution of intercollegiate competition in Canada. A seasoned athlete, Liz is already a member of the Hall of Fame in celebration of her talents on the field hockey pitch, and in the swimming pool. This experience as a Blue served her well as head coach of the Blues when she led the field hockey team to 16 Ontario league titles and eight CIS championships. During her years at the helm of the Blues field hockey team, Liz was named CIS coach of the year three times. The annual award for the most valuable player in CIS field hockey is named in her honour. Her university coaching success also includes two Ontario championships in women’s swimming and three titles in intermediate field hockey.
Throughout her career as a builder, Liz served on the board of directors of Canadian Interuniversity Sport during three different decades (1982-86, 1993-97, 2003-07), serving as president from 1995 to 1997. Liz was also a U of T delegate to Ontario University Athletics and its predecessors from 1977 until 2010. During that time she served terms as president (1980-84) and past president (2003-07) of the organization.
In 1982 Liz served as U of T’s intercollegiate coordinator before she took the helm as director of athletics in 1998. During this time, she built a tremendous coaching team, and under her leadership the Varsity Blues claimed 17 national titles and 126 provincial team championships over an almost 20 year stretch.
In recent years, Liz played a key role in the redevelopment of Varsity Centre, overseeing the construction of the multi-phased project. In addition, she helped negotiate a multi-year partnership with the then Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, which gives select high performance athletes access to facilities, services, sport medicine and sport science at the University of Toronto. Liz was also active in developing the University of Toronto component of the successful bid for the 2015 Pan Am Games, and the planning of and advocacy for the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport.
