• Creator of GUBA (great university bear of Alberta).
• Served 13 years as the U of A's assistant athletic director and coordinator of men's athletics.
• Manager/trainer of the Bears football team, winning the first National College Bowl.
• Played on the 1989 national senior men's slow-pitch softball championship team.
• Alberta novice handball champion (1964), Alberta novice squash champion (1971), Canadian B-level racquetball champion (1972).
Born in Empress, Alberta, Charles J “Chuck” Moser articled with a Chartered Accounting firm from 1958 to 1961, but his love of sport - particularly baseball, at which he excelled - drew him to the University of Alberta where he completed a BPE degree in 1964, followed by an MA in 1972. Moser served as Manager/Trainer of the Golden Bears Football team from 1962 to 1967 (when the Bears won the first national College Bowl in Canada’s Centennial year), and he worked part-time with the Edmonton Eskimos as an Assistant Trainer from 1966 to 1968 after a knee injury turned his attention to athletic training. While an undergraduate student, Moser umpired professional baseball in western Canada, and in 1989 his team won the National Senior Men’s Slow Pitch Softball title. A talented athlete, he also won the Alberta Novice Handball Championship in 1964, the Alberta Novice Squash Championship in 1971 as well as the Racquetball Canadian B-level Championship the next year.
In 1966, U of A Athletic Director Ed Zemrau recruited Moser as Assistant Athletic Director and Coordinator of Men’s Intercollegiate Athletics, a role he filled with distinction for the next thirteen years, including serving as Acting Athletic Director in 1972-73. Moser’s responsibilities included supervising and supporting 25 Golden Bear coaches in team administration, travel and equipment control. He also administered and supervised expenditures of fourteen team budgets, coordinated ticket sales, handled scheduling, recruited and trained student managers, and supervised physical plant maintenance. Moser’s focus on the importance of students as athletes has remained a guiding principle in the U of A’s athletic programs, demonstrated by the University’s significant number of Academic All-Canadian award recipients. Thousands of student athletes at U of A benefitted from Moser’s considerable marketing, organizational and administrative skills, and his achievements as Mayor of the XIth Commonwealth Games (1978) Athletes’ Village were outstanding; it was an event that put Edmonton on the world map as a venue for major international multi-sport competition.
After the very successful Commonwealth Games, Moser moved to the provincial government, where he served as inaugural Executive Director of the Recreation, Parks & Wildlife Foundation from 1980 to 1994. During this time, the influence of the Foundation reached into virtually every community and region in the province. Following five years working in the private sector, he returned to the University as Manager of Development and Alumni Affairs in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation from 2000 to 2010.
Among many, one legacy of Chuck Moser needs to be highlighted: the creative idea behind the Golden Bears’ mascot. Inspired by the Brigham Young mascot while attending the Rainbow Classic basketball tournament in Hawaii, Moser and his wife Lynne designed the bear that later became known as GUBA (the Great University Bear of Alberta, a name suggested by Bears’ football player Dave Zaharko). GUBA was initially brought to life by John Struger on January 24th, 1970 at a Bears basketball game in the Main Gym against arch rivals UBC. Moser was an early advocate of the marketing power of university sport in Canada, and his success in promoting student sport was legendary.
A consummate team player, Chuck Moser’s dedication as a builder of the athletic program at the University of Alberta has been sustained for more than fifty years. He volunteered extensively while a student, developed a detailed understanding of the operations of the intercollegiate and intramural programs as an administrator, and served tirelessly in leadership roles in the Green and Gold Athletic Society and the Sports Wall of Fame program. Moser continues to give back to his alma mater by generously offering his time, energy, humour and talent.
