Glowing tributes are reminders of the impact her father had on the Kamloops sports community.

“I mean, it’s just really going to make me cry,” Kathryn O’Brien said. “There’s definitely a big hole in my life right now, but to see him being held in such high esteem is heartwarming. And to know that he’s left a huge legacy is really wonderful.”

Pat O’Brien died on April 16.

He was the first athletics and recreation director at Cariboo College, joining the school in 1970 and establishing its sports programs — the roots for the TRU WolfPack teams that now compete in the Canada West ranks.

“He was a jovial, fun guy that loved teaching,” said Jon Shepard, athletics co-ordinator for the WolfPack, TRU sports historian, and former O’Brien student at Cariboo College. “He loved the community. One of his philosophies from day one was to provide service for children and the community, and it went from kids in the KYSA (Kamloops Youth Soccer Association), adults throughout the community, and at the university or college at the time.”

Shepard said O’Brien kept sports programs alive in the early 1970s by securing facilities across the city for games and practices until construction of the Cariboo College gym was complete in 1976.

“When I think of Pat O’Brien, I think sport co-ordinator, fundraiser, manager, coach, supporter, fan,” Shepard said, noting O’Brien was a facilitator of all sorts of sports and activities, including table tennis, badminton, pool, aerobics, gymnastics, and bowling.

“And that’s sport with the university college and with the community. Just an amazing guy.”

Terry Bangen arrived at Cariboo College along with the gym in 1976, offering support for O’Brien in the roles of assistant athletics director and coach of the hockey team.

“The biggest legacy by far is the Sports Task force,” Bangen said when asked about O’Brien’s footprint.

“He organized that group of businessmen and they put on a huge fundraising dinner. The idea was to raise scholarships for student athletes to prevent the local athletes from leaving here, but what it also did was — because these were important business leaders in the community — it really opened eyes as to what was up here on the hill.

“And the school’s grown to 15,000 students and you can see the facilities, Hillside Stadium, the Tournament Capital Centre, I mean, all of those growth things I think really came about as a result of the Sports Task Force awakening the people to what we had here and what the potential could be.”

O’Brien and Bangen left the school in 1994 and 1995, respectively, and will be forever linked, both members of the Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame (KSHF) and TRU Athletics Hall of Fame.

The KSHF nod for O’Brien was earned in part by contribution to The Beautiful Game in the city, with the Kamloops Youth Soccer Association (now Kamloops United Football Club) referring to him as one of its founding fathers.

Longtime Kamloops soccer proponent Kelly Shantz can recall his first memory of O’Brien on the pitch about 50 years ago, looking up after sailing a shot over the net to find the referee (O’Brien) offering him advice on how to improve accuracy.

“Pat might have been on the forefront of the whole era around soccer and other sports and working together and fundraising,” Shantz said, noting the importance of O’Brien’s roles as an advocate, organizer and referee.

“Pat was the nicest guy on earth, but he was no pushover. Like so many people in that era, he’d call things out that weren’t right and that needed to be better. He had no problem speaking his mind. I think that might have been the Irish background.

“He wanted to improve things and create culture of working together, giving, community, and service, and it rubbed off on everybody.”

Shantz lost a mentor, business associate, and friend.

“So, I mean, there’s a sadness that comes with it,” he said. “He’s just one of the good ones. There’s really no other way to put it. No matter what you were involved in with him, you walked away being better for it.”

Kathryn O’Brien is soaking in memories and stories, appreciative of the reinforcement of his value in many athletics roles.

But it’s the roles of father and grandfather that she speaks of mostly when asked about his legacy.

“He was my dad,” she said. “He killed spiders that were in my room. He was my hero.”