Rick Klassen was born in Chilliwack and attended Sardis Secondary School from 1972-1977. An outstanding athlete with exceptional drive and talent, Rick played multiple sports growing up and excelled at them all earning the outstanding male athlete award at Sardis both as a junior and a senior. Rick was also an honor role student at Sardis Secondary, and his play as one of the top running backs in the province earned him a football scholarship to Simon Fraser University in 1977. His outstanding play continued at SFU where he played for the Clansmen earning NAIA District All Star status as an offensive guard.

Rick’s drive and athleticism carried him to a professional career in the Canadian Football League with the BC Lions, starting as a territorial protection in 1981 as an offensive lineman where he was later switched to the defensive line. During his CFL career, Rick was named the Most Outstanding Player in the 1983 Grey Cup, earned a CFL Western All Star nomination in 1985 and was a member of the 1985 Grey Cup Champion Lions. In 1994, Rick was voted by the fans as a member of the BC Lions 50th Season All Time Dream Team and in 2015 he was nominated to the BC Lions Wall of Fame. Rick recorded 66 regular season sacks as a defensive lineman during his 10 seasons in the Canadian Football League which remains among the Top 40 career totals in the 104 year history of the Canadian Football League and among the Top 10 for Interior Linemen. Rick played in two Grey Cup games and he made the most of those appearances with an incredible 5 QB Sacks which has him in the Top 5 all time still.

Rick passed away too soon in December of 2016 after a long fight with Cancer. He was proud of his family, his school and Falcon athletics.