Hall of Fame
Competing in men’s gymnastics, Alan Hobson established himself as one of UW-Oshkosh’s best. A four-time varsity letterwinner, Hobson was a member of the 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981 NAIA national championship teams. A five-time NAIA All-American, Hobson captured the 1981 horizontal bar national title.
The four-time NCAA Division II All-American was also a member of the NCAA Division II 1980 and 1981 championship teams. In 1981, Hobson was named UW-Oshkosh’s outstanding male senior scholar-athlete.
Since graduating from UW-Oshkosh in 1981, Hobson has enjoyed a long history of success in financing, planning, organizing and leading logistically complex and physically demanding expeditions to hostile places worldwide.
Now residing in Calgary, Canada, Hobson plans on swimming the English Channel in September of 2000. With the tides he will be required to swim 30 to 40 miles in water averaging about 53 degrees Fahrenheit. His quest will take him 15 to 20 hours to swim from England to France. Further, in 2002, Hobson is to dive to the North Pole, the first time this has ever been done in history.
In 2003, as part of The Ocean Everest Expedition, he will dive to the deepest point in the ocean, The Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench. It is 36,000 feet deep and the purpose of this historic expedition is to open up two-thirds of the Earth’s surface to human exploration and take the first bold step in uncovering unimagined stores of biotechnology that could eventually lead to a cure for cancer. The expedition will be the marine equivalent of the first exploration of the moon.
In the past, Hobson has been honored as one of Canada’s best citizens. In 1991, he was nominated for the Order of Canada, the highest award that can be bestowed on a Canadian civilian.
Fluently bilingual in English and French he is a member of Who’s Who in Canada and is a full-time professional speaker and author who makes 60 to 80 professional speaking presentations annually worldwide. He is the author of five books, including the national bestseller, The Power of Passion.
