Bob Barney

Robert Knight Barney (born January 5, 1932) 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 (2002), 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. (Multiple sources report Bob and Dave Barney as twin brothers, although one source mistakenly lists Dave and Peter as twins, instead of Bob and Dave.) 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. 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. (Krider (2014) wrote, "At one time or another they competed in football, baseball, hockey, softball, boxing and tennis.) He and Peter, with no experience, once made the state tennis doubles semifinals in Mississippi.", and "His first taste of swimming came during his senior year in Panama, when tried water polo for eight weeks." 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. 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.

Graduate student, coach and professor

As a graduate student, Barney was a part-time physical education instructor at UNM, 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 (AAU). 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.

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, 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. 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. 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 (CIAU) 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 (OUAA) 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.

Professor and researcher

Olympic Games and sport

Attending the 1984 Summer Olympics gave Barney inspiration for a scholarly institution to independently research the Olympic Games. He served as the founding director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies from 1989 to 1998, was its co-director from 1998 to 2000, and interim director from 2007 to 2010. He felt that the Olympics "is worthy of study because it is one of the biggest meetings in a global context and has many political, economic, and other problems associated with it". Also in 1992, Barney began the biannual International Symposium for Olympic Research. and collaborated with the American Sports Literature Association to conduct an annual conference, including workshops and lectures open to the public. In July 2000, when the Los Angeles Times reported on the tangled nature of how the International Olympic Committee (IOC) redistributes profits from sponsorships and broadcasting rights, Barney stated that he had "yet to see matters of corruption in the IOC", but noted there were "matters of unaccountability". He later noted that when the spotlight is on the athletes, it has "the power to eclipse impressions of scandal or corruption", with respect to the Olympic bid process.

In 2000, Barney felt that Canada needed to specialize in the Olympics, rather than trying to be compete at too many sports. He also that felt that Canada's medal count at the 2000 Summer Olympics, was due to a lack of government funding, and poor planning to develop high performance athletes. In 2002, he advocated for mixed doubles curling to be added to the Winter Olympics. He argued that it was a sport without any "gender factor", and high television ratings; and noted that equestrian events at the Summer Olympics was the only Olympic sport allowing males and females to compete against each other. Mixed doubles curling made its debut at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Barney participated in a series of history lectures prior the 2002 Winter Olympics, where he spoke about Olympic symbols and commercialization. He co-authored the book Selling the Five Rings (2002), with Stephen Wenn and Scott Martyn, which discussed the history of corporate sponsorships and television rights for the Olympic Games. Barney argued that the Olympic torch had been commercialized since its inception in 1936, and that sponsors of the torch relay benefit from brand awareness; whereas the medal podium ceremonies which began in 1932, had not become commercialized since no advertising is allowed inside Olympic venues. He also stated that Olympic podiums were based on pedestals used at the 1930 British Empire Games proposed by Melville Marks Robinson, then implemented for the 1932 Winter Olympics.

Baseball in Canada

Barney researched the oldest verified baseball game was in Canada, based on a letter from Adam Ford to the editor of Sporting Life, published on May 5, 1886. In the letter, Ford described in detail a game he witnessed on June 4, 1838, played in Beachville, Ontario. Assisted by graduate student Nancy Bouchier, Barney verified the names of participants and descriptions of the field; by researching tax forms, census records, maps, church records, and tombstones, and found that all of the participants and details in Ford's letter were correct.

The Journal of Sport History published Barney's findings in 1988. He also served on the editorial review board of Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Social Policy Perspectives, and was chairman of the induction selection committee of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 2021, Barney was appointed to a steering committee for an application by London, Ontario, for Labatt Park to be granted national heritage site distinction. The park was previously made an Ontario heritage site in 1994. Barney and graduate student Riley Nowokowski began investigating the history of Labatt Park, following an American challenge to its claim as baseball's "oldest and continuously operated" park. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on June 17, 2014, and gave that year's convocation address, titled "The Fruits of Your Roots". In 2023, Barney received a lifetime achievement award from the Western Mustang Athletics Association.

The IOC bestowed the Olympic Order upon Barney in July 1997, for his work in establishing the International Centre for Olympic Studies and the journal Olympika. He received the NASSH recognition award in 2003, for his book Selling the Five Rings. In 2019, California State University, Fullerton, established the Robert Knight Barney Graduate Student Essay Award at the Center for Sociocultural Sport and Olympic Research (CSSOR), given annually for original research on the Olympic Games. All three Barney brothers became educators, with Dave teaching English at the university, and as a swim and track coach at Albuquerque Academy. Their younger brother Peter served in the United States Navy, also attended UNM, and was a director of physical education at Albuquerque Academy.

As a graduate student, Barney worked for the Albuquerque Journal by servicing local news distributors. He has been married twice, and retains American citizenship while working in Canada. He resides in London, Ontario, and is a lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox. Other interests include classical music, The New York Times crossword, and historical biographies.