AKH Congratulates its newest Life Member Ramesh Patel QSM

At the AKH 2020 AGM this morning Ramesh was awarded a thoroughly deserved Life Membership of the Auckland Hockey Association after a stellar playing and administrative career and service to our sport.

Ramesh started with the St Luke’s club at the age of 10 in 1963 and was a loyal member throughout his playing career. He first represented Auckland at the Hatch Cup level in 1966 and first played for the Auckland Men’s team in 1972 going on to play 203 games and Captaining the side from 1981 to 1986.

In 123 games for NZ Ramesh was selected for four Olympic Games from Munich in 1972 through to Los Angeles in 1984 with the highlight him being a key figure in the Gold medal winning team in Montreal in 1976.

Outside of hockey Ramesh taught at Auckland Grammar School winning 3 Rankin Cup titles, and was NZ’s first HNZ CEO, serving in the role for 21 years. After retiring from the CEO role Ramesh has been helping in various hockey roles as well as being the Director of Hockey and First Eleven Boys Coach at St Kentigern College, winning the Rankin Cup again in 2018.

In 1988 Ramesh was awarded a QSM for services to hockey and in 2017 awarded HNZ Life Membership. We are very lucky to have such an iconic player, teacher, coach and communicator in our AKH community who now joins his brother Mahendra Unka as a Life Member and his nephew Paresh Patel, Olympian, and current Board Member, as family members who have contributed significantly to our history as one of NZ’s leading hockey associations.