Photo: Sarah Barclay, Senior Director of Development & Alumni Engagement for Athletics and Recreation and award recipient John Moran, Digital Archivist at UBC Archives.
Congratulations to John Moran, Digital Archivist at UBC Archives, who was awarded the Honourary Blocker Award at the annual Big Block Awards held by the UBC Athletics and Recreation at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on April 2, 2025.
For more than 80 years, the Big Block Club has honoured the best that UBC Athletics has to offer. More than 9,000 varsity letter winners have been inducted into the esteemed club, and hundreds of remarkable student-athletes have been recognized for their outstanding achievements.
The Honourary Blocker Award was given to Moran in recognition of UBC Archives’ “exceptional commitment to the archives and history of our varsity sport programs” through the creation of the UBC Department of Athletics & Recreation fonds.
“This project was my first major project as a new archivist,” says Moran, noting that the project was truly a team effort that would not have been possible without the expertise and support of University Archivist Erwin Wodarczak, Department of Athletics historian Fred Hume, and Candice Bjur, Archives Clerk at UBC Archives.
“Over the course of two years, I compiled the finding aid, with a special focus on documenting the information Fred [Humes] provided, so that former Thunderbirds and their descendants could locate images of themselves, teammates, or family members,” says Moran.
Learn more about the UBC Department of Athletics & Recreation fonds.