• An outstanding athlete, administrator, coach, and builder who led Physical Education at the U of A from a Department to a School (1954) and then to a Faculty (1964)-the first faculty in the British Commonwealth and the first to offer a PhD in Physical Education (1967).
• Appointed as a full professor with tenure in 1945, he served as director, chair, and then dean of Physical Education (and later Recreation) from 1945 to 1978.
• Served as president of the XI Commonwealth Games, which opened on his 65th birthday (August 3, 1978).
• Awarded honorary doctoral degrees by seven institutions in Canada.
• Named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1978; inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame & Museum in 1980; inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.
• The University of Alberta's sport, physical education, and recreation complex is named in his honour.

Dr. Maury Van Vliet – a pioneer and pre-eminent Canadian Physical Educator, a widely heralded sport administrator, an excellent coach, a builder of Canadian and university sport and a friend to thousands of students who studied at the Unversity of Alberta.

Under his leadership, Physical Education was expanded to become a full department on campus with a degree curriculum. The department then became a School and finally a Faculty in 1964. In 1967, the Faculty became the first Physical Education school in the Commonwealth to offer a Doctor of Philosophy degree.

Dr. Van Vliet was born in Bellingham, Washington and received his high school and junior college education in California where he lettered in four sports; track, football, basketball and baseball. Continuing his education at the University of Oregon, he received his Bachelor and Master’s degrees. Here he competed in football and baseball. In 1951 he earned his Doctorate from UCLA. Dr. Van Vliet spent ten years at the University of British Columbia, prior to accepting a position at the University of Alberta where he served as Director, Chairman and founding Dean of the Faculty from 1945 to 1978.

Dr. Van Vliet was selected as President of the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton. The successful staging of the Games brought world recognition to the University, the City and the Province. Dr. Van Vliet’s many contributions to the development of sport and physical education programs in Canada has resulted in seven Canadian universities recognizing him with Honorary Doctoral degrees.