Barb Hart Harris has done it all for field hockey. Hart Harris was part of the Greater Vancouver Women’s Grass Hockey Association that twice represented Canada at the International Federation of Women’s Hockey Associations (IFWHA) world tournament. The first was in Amsterdam in 1959 and the second in Baltimore in 1963 when Hart Harris was Canada’s captain.

Hart Harris became a teacher in the Burnaby School District where she was able to develop her coaching chops. Her field hockey teams regularly made the playoffs and two of her Burnaby South basketball squads (1961 and 1964) reached the provincial championships.

The long-time Burnaby resident also has an extensive resume as a builder. She was named chair of the field hockey competition held at Burnaby Lake fields during the 1973 Canada Summer Games. The Canada Games experience prepared Hart Harris for a five-year stint as the vice-chair and tournament coordinator for the 1979 IFWHA held at the University of British Columbia. It was the largest gathering for a women’s sports event ever held in Canada. Hart Harris went on to hold several administrative positions at international and local field hockey events for more than three decades.

Much of her work at these competitions was done alongside her former teammate and friend Moira Colbourne — a Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame honoured member (inducted in 2001) and long-time Hall committee member — earning them both induction as builders into the Field Hockey Canada Hall of Fame in 2020.

Hart Harris also founded and oversaw construction of the Terry Fox Route in Burnaby’s Central Park and organized Burnaby’s annual Terry Fox Runs at Swangard Stadium for 11 years.