Bob started playing TF in Rec in 1983 with a bunch of high school buddies, and interestingly former BC Lion John Henry White was on the team as well. Always blessed with tremendous speed, and a strong arm, Bob QB'd this team but always had more yards rushing than passing. They did enjoy some success until they ran in to a veteran squad called the Indians. To try and negate his elusiveness in the backfield they employed the first double rush Bob had ever encountered. The Indians crushed Bobs team, with him throwing about 7 interceptions. Humbled by that experience, Bob was then recruited by Jim Nichols of the Indians to come and be their HB/Receiver. A lot of credit goes to Jim as he would virtually have to babysit Bob, picking him up for every game and getting him home afterwards as Bob was young and had no car. His talent was such though that Jim didn't want to play a game without him. The Indians already had a HB named Mark Metzner with one of the Top 5 strongest arms ever in TF and they would routinely get it to him in the far right backfield for him to throw a bomb down the FAR left sideline to Bob streaking past his defenders. His ability to catch those passes was pretty much a 50/50 proposition in those days. Luckily he became an excellent receiver in later years.

After a couple of years with the Indians, Bob caught the attention of Greg Patchell from the Eagles, who was always looking for better talent to bolster his squad. He made a pitch for Bob, and while reluctant to leave his friends on the Indians, it was a chance to move up into Intermediate and Top Flight and play against better competition. It is a defining characteristic of Bob that he always, always wanted to compete against the best. When other players would be hoping that their oppositions best players might not show, Bob was always hoping they would. This is when I first encountered Bob, in the Provincial Intermediate Championships in about 1989, the Eagles were playing the Huskies and we would face the loser. The Eagles were stacked so we focused on watching the Huskies, sure in the fact we'd be playing them. As it turned out it was a very close game, and the Eagles were left with needing a touchdown on the final play of the game to win from inside the 15yrd line. The pass of course went to their fastest receiver, Bob, but his hands were still a bit suspect and it bounced off into a Huskies defenders arms and now we had to face the Eagles in the consolation round. I remember they beat us pretty good, but Bob stood out as he had his hair done up in a Brian Bosworth mullet, with his number # 44 shaved into the side. I also remember him yapping at me after catching a ball underneath and as I started to run toward him, still probaby 20yrds away, he started to taunt me telling me I couldn't catch him. I didn't.

Basically he is hyper-competitive, and hyper-confident. He loves to compete at everything from to tossing hockey cards to running 40yd dashes on the sidelines after football games. And he is always very good at it. You name it, pool, darts, golf, hockey,curling, baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer he is really, really good at it. I think he still holds a record in PoCo youth soccer as a goalie.

TFBC Top Flight Championships

Mavericks - Spring 1997
Black Plague - Fall 2004
Cowboys - Spring 2005
Cowboys - Spring 2006
Cowboys - Fall 2006
Cowboys - Spring 2008
Cowboys - Fall 2009 

Kelowna Maybowl

Eagles, Intermediate champs 1991,
Tournament MVP

Cowboys, Top Flight Champs 2008,
Tournament MVP
 

" Bob was one of the most intense competitors in the history of touch football to have ever taken the field. He felt he could beat any player he was up against in any aspect of the game, and he had the physical ability and skills to back it up.  "

- Peter Boudewyn

I joined the Eagles shortly thereafter , getting my first chance to play with Bob. As I said he is hyper-confident, and would always volunteer to cover the other teams best receiver man-to-man. Not always successfully mind you, but it was great having someone willing to step up. As Dale Baxter mentioned ' I was intense, people didn't always like playing against me', the same can equally be said of Bob, and in fact quite a few guys over the years could not handle playing 'with' him either. He wasn't afraid to call team mates out and not everyone can handle that kind of pressure. I actually had to cut him from playing defense with the Eagles because he was so disruptive, and as you can imagine he would then stand on the sidelines and still be disruptive. :^) I can still remember being in the defensive huddle about to call our set up, and hearing from the sideline " I can't believe the fastest guy in touchfootball isn't on defense". He would say that over, and over. Drove me nuts. After one season we ended up cutting him and his brother Paul reluctantly because they were great talents but just not conducive to what we where trying to do. We were trying to implement a system on defense and they were very much inclined in those days to do their own thing, relying on their great athletic ability.

Bob and Paul then went on to form the Jailbirds, and play together in Intermediate for a few seasons. It was at this time Bob worked for the airlines and was transferred to Calgary. He loved to compete so much that he flew home every weekend so that he could play on Sunday, then fly back to Calgary that night. I remember playing them a few times and was happy that he wasn't out as a receiver anymore, but back being a QB. He had the big arm and loved to air it out so we generally beat them pretty good just sitting back. One story that sticks out though at this time was when I was charged with reffing one of his games. Bob was getting frustrated with his rusher not getting pressure on the opposing QB,so he volunteered to rush. After the QB still made a couple of completions Bob comes back to his huddle and admonishes his teammates saying "Guys, you only have to cover them for 2 seconds. Just 2 seconds!!! I'm almost beating the ball back to the QB!!!" Hilarious, but he was serious in his mind.

Again, seeking better competiton, the Jailbirds dissolved when Bob was recruited by the Bears in Top Flight. At the time the Bears were the only serious challengers to the Dolphins, and they picked up Bob for his great speed and ability to make big plays. Bob didn't quite fit in with the likes of Duncan and Craig Lindegaard, but he did make a bunch of big plays with them including a kick off return for a TD that was unbelievable. I know I saw it. I think that experiment lasted about 1 season.

As fate would have it the Dolphins core broke up in the early nineties, and Bob along with Gord Krinke (the colonel), Doug and Dave Dyment, Mike Miller of the Dolphins, Ricky Ford of the current Thunder and a few others formed up the Steelers with an eye to dethroning the perenial Champs. They gave it a good run, including travelling back to Toronto for the National Championships but fell short after winning their 1st 2 games back there. With the ex-Dolphins retiring after that, the team broke up.

From there the old core of his team the Eagles, including myself reformed together changing our names to the Mavericks in about 95-96ish. Top Flight was the Dolphins, Bears, Mavericks, then everyone else. Greg Patchell was still the QB so Bob mainly played HB/Receiver as I still didn't want him on my defense at the time even though I would play him occasionally. Bob dedicated himself to being a great receiver, and he transformed himself into one making big grabs all the time, and usually leading our team in TD receptions. It was 1997 Spring where we were able to dethrone the Dolphins after many many years of them being the Champions. We knocked them out in the semi finals, then beat the Panthers in the final. What was interesting about that game is that our QB Greg was just terrible that day, throwing 5 Interceptions, and so as the game wore on he would use Bob as HB more and more. As the game wound down and the Panthers closed the gap, we need to score to seal the win, and the play went to Bob in the backfield, about 70yrds from paydirt. I remember him running around in the backfield evading his pursuers for what seemed like forever before launching a bomb on the dead run about 60yrds to our biggest slowest player Mike Twynstra who played center, who hauled it in and rumbled into the endzone for the victory.

About a season later guys moved away, got married, retired so we put together the team called the Knights. For the next few seasons it was either us or the Panthers getting beat by the Dolphins in the Championship games. One of my great memories from that era was playing in the Provincials in Victoria, facing the Orangemen in the qtr final. There was about 3 minutes to go in the half and we just finished botching a KO return that left us deep in our end and Bob flat on his back. As the other team began mocking him, he shot up, looked at the ref and said 'how much time is there'. The ref said, 5 plays. Bob then turns to the Orangemen and says, I'm going to take all 5 plays and march down and score on the last play of the half. This elicited a lot of laughter and jibes from the Orangemen players. He then proceed to use all 5 plays , marching the length of the field, then beating their very good rusher on the last play of the half and running it in from the 15yrd line. It was unbelievable. We would also go to Maybowl every year, usually losing to the Dolphins in either the finals or semi-finals.

We then merged with some of the guys from the Black Plague, even changing our names each season from Knights to Black Plague and then back again. This was the next time we won Top Flight inFall 2004 and really started us on a run. Bob and Paul Goumans would routinely alternate who would QB, and Bob became a big part of our defense as we put together some pretty astonishing stats in pts for/against over the next 5 yrs. Bob endured a bunch of injuries over that span, sometimes missing the playoffs which hurt our chances of winning more, but even so I remember in the fall of 2006, with a broken hand, Bob couldn't QB but he still managed to catch and play defense. We beat the Gators in the finals, Bob making several big plays to get us there.

I know that one of his highlights was winning Top Flight Maybowl ( he aso won in INT with the Eagles, and won MVP) in 2008. Playing superb he garnered the the MVP for that tourney and what many don't realize is that almost his entire offense was completely new to him having only been thrown together for that tournament. We had so many guys, and I kept all of our good core to play on defense leaving all the new guys to offense. Bob is the only QB I've ever seen not be affected by having different receivers to throw too. He's been recruited to play flag many times as well, and he'll show up, not knowing anyone really, then go out and be a rockstar at QB.

In summation, Bob always played with a lot of heart, and despite our differences on the field we have become very good friends over the years. A lot of people may not have understood him on his teams or the opposition but he always just wanted to compete at his best and against the best. It is tribute to him that he was able to be so intense yet leave it on the field when the game was over and go have a beer with you. He is an incredibly funny guy on the field and even more so on the sidelines after the games. I know he cherishes the many friendships he's made over the years in TF, saying in fact that most of his friends come from touch football. He could always go hard partying the night before games but always showed up to play no matter what even coming directly from the cop-shop one game. I know the league won't ever see another one like Bob Leblevec, and that is a shame.