Bob Barney
Robert Knight Barney is an American academic and sports historian. A veteran of the United States Air Force during the Korean conflict, he attended the University of New Mexico where he was a three-sport varsity athlete, and earned bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees. He coached the New Mexico Lobos swimming team to seven winning seasons, and was a professor of physical education. At the University of Western Ontario, he served as director of intercollegiate athletics from 1972 to 1979, then focused on teaching, writing and research, and became a professor emeritus in 1996. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Western Ontario in 2014, and is inducted into the sports hall of fame for both the Western Mustangs and the New Mexico Lobos.
As a baseball historian, Barney's research verified the oldest-known game played in Canada—June 4, 1838—in Beachville, Ontario. He has served on the board of directors for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, and advocated for relocating the hall of fame to St. Marys, Ontario, and was chairman of the induction selection committee. He spent three years investigating the history of Labatt Park, validating its claim as baseball's oldest and continuously operated park, and assisted on the park's application for national heritage site distinction.
In 1989, Barney established the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario, to research the history and sociocultural impacts of the Olympics. In 1992, he began Olympika, the first peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the Olympics. He has served as president of the North American Society for Sport History, is a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians, and was associate editor of the Journal of Olympic History. He co-authored the book Selling the Five Rings, which discussed the history of corporate sponsorships and television rights for the Olympic Games. For his scholarly work on history of the Olympics, he received the Olympic Order in 1997, and the Pierre de Coubertin medal in 2009.
Early life
Robert Knight Barney was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts, on January 5, 1932. His father Robert S. Barney, was a colonel in the United States Air Force, and a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. Barney's mother Blanche Geraldine Barney was a descendant from the youngest passenger of the 1620 voyage by the Mayflower, and a soldier who served in the American Revolutionary War.Barney is the older of mirror image twins to his brother Dave. They grew up playing baseball, and swam at the family's summer home on Newfound Lake near Bristol, New Hampshire. The family moved according to their father's military service, including stays in Rochester, New Hampshire, Lake Charles, Louisiana, Biloxi, Mississippi, the island of Guam, and the Panama Canal Zone. The Barneys attended six elementary schools across the United States, and seven high schools around the world, including Spaulding High School, Biloxi High School, Aurora High School, George Washington High School, and Balboa High School. While living in Mississippi, he reached the state tennis doubles semifinals with his brother, and first became involved in swimming and water polo while living in Panama. Barney and his brother Dave graduated from Balboa High School in Panama, and briefly attended Canal Zone Junior College in Balboa. During high school, Barney lettered in football, baseball, basketball, track and field, tennis, and swimming.
University of New Mexico
Undergraduate and military years
Barney enrolled at University of New Mexico in 1950, played football for the Lobos in his freshman year, then joined the United States Air Force by 1951. In four years with the Air Force, he was an atomic armorer for nuclear weapons testing in the western United States and the South Pacific, and served in the Korean conflict. He also played for the 4925th Atomics in the Duke City Baseball League, participated in New Mexico amateur swim meets with the Kirtland Air Force Base team, and played defense and goaltender for the Kirtland Air Force Base Flyers in the Sandia Mountain Hockey League.After military service, Barney resumed studies at UNM in 1955. During the summer, Barney was an instructor at Albuquerque YMCA learn-to-swim clinics. Barney and his brother Dave participated in intramural sports, won multiple swimming events, and were offered a scholarship for books and tuition to join the Lobos swimming team in 1957. According to Dave Barney, the recruiting coach saw the name "Barney" winning many races, but did not realize they were twin brothers. Barney was named an all-star Skyline Conference swimmer. The day prior to a competition, Barney consumed a roast then raced to a second-place finish in a freestyle swimming event. The team's coach permitted the large meal, as Barney was the team's only entrant in the race.
Barney was a letterman for the Lobos baseball and swimming teams, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education at UNM in 1959, and was named to the dean's honor roll.
Graduate student, coach and professor
As a graduate student, Barney was a part-time physical education instructor at UNM, and was a captain of the Lobos swimming team. Until 1962, Barney worked as the swimming director and head lifeguard at Albuquerque Country Club for five years; where he oversaw instruction for swimmers aged 8 to 16, and coached the synchronized swimming team.Barney combined the Albuquerque Country Club with programs of other pools in Albuquerque to form the Duke City Swim Club in 1959, to select swimmers to represent the city in state and national events sanctioned by the Amateur Athletic Union. Barney was subsequently named the AAU water polo commissioner for New Mexico, and oversaw the first annual state championships, held in 1960 at the Johnson Gymnasium Pool at UNM. He played for and coached the Los Federales water polo team, which included his brothers David and Peter; and competed in New Mexico AAU tournaments. Los Federales won a fourth consecutive New Mexico state amateur water polo championship in 1964.
In 1962, Barney was named head coach of the Lobos swimming team, his first full-time professional coaching position. UNM joined the Western Athletic Conference at the same, which increased scholarships available to swimmers. Barney focused recruiting efforts in the Midwest United States, aiming for the best results in the team's history. He subsequently coached the Lobos swimming team to seven winning seasons. Barney led the Lobos to 13 wins and one loss during the 1964–65 season, the team's best result in their history. Their only loss was to the defending Western Athletic Conference champion, the Utah Utes.
Barney was a New Mexico state delegate to the AAU convention, and sat on the national water polo committee. Due to disagreements between the AAU and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, AAU events could no longer be hosted at UNM. Despite this, Barney remained involved in amateur swimming beyond the university. He was elected vice-president of the Duke City Aquatic Association in 1963, and arranged AAU-sanctioned events and indoor high school state championship swim meets, and was the AAU director in charge of the 1964 junior national women's water polo championships held in Albuquerque. Barney was also a referee and starter for high school and club swim meets, and the meet director for the 11th annual New Mexico state high school swimming championships held at the Johnson Gym Pool in 1966.
Researching a long-time UNM coach and athletic director, Barney authored The Roy W. Johnson Biography, as part of his master's degree thesis published in November 1963. Barney earned a Master of Science degree from UNM in 1964, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1968, in curriculum and instruction. His doctorate dissertation, Turmoil and Triumph – A Narrative History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of New Mexico and its Implication in the Social History of Albuquerque — 1889–1950, was a history of New Mexico sports.
After completing a doctorate degree, Barney was a professor of physical education at UNM. When denied academic tenure in 1969, he accepted an academic physical education position at Sacramento State College for the 1969–70 school year. He was subsequently an associate professor of physical education at Boston State College from 1970 to 1972. During 1972, he was a visiting graduate professor of American economic and social history at Rivier College, in New Hampshire.
University of Western Ontario
Intercollegiate athletics director
Barney served as director of intercollegiate athletics at University of Western Ontario from 1972 to 1979, in the newly established Faculty of Physical Education. He succeeded football coach John P. Metras as the athletic director. During Barney's time as athletics director, the Western Mustangs football team increased from an all-time low of 200 season ticket subscribers in 1974, to an average attendance of 10,000 per game by 1977.In October 1975, the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union suspended the Windsor Lancers from all sports for two years, for the use of an ineligible men's football player. Some older universities in the Ontario Universities Athletics Association suggested withdrawing from the CIAU, which had different player eligibility rules. Barney felt that the CIAU made a "play for real power over athletics in this country". In May 1976, the Windsor Star reported that Barney proposed realignment of schools at the 1976 OUAA general meeting, which "would bring together universities with similar philosophies towards athletics".
Due to decreasing enrollment, inflation and budget cuts as of 1978, Barney considered eliminating some sports from intercollegiate athletics. The university had 21 men's sports teams, and 17 women's teams at the time, and received less in government subsidies given on a per student basis. Barney stated that cuts to coaching staff were necessitated by the budget constraints.
As of July 1, 1979, Barney was succeeded as chairman intercollegiate athletics by Bob Eynon, varsity swimming coach of the Mustangs. Barney remained in the Faculty of Physical Education.