Robert Barney

Commitment and involvement describe Bob Barney’s athletic and academic career. Robert K. “Bob” Barney received his BS, MS and PhD all from UNM. He played freshman football, lettered in baseball and swimming and was a multisport intramural athlete.

After a brief stint in the Air Force, Barney returned to UNM and was hired as a professor in the Physical Education department and also led the Lobos to seven winning seasons as the varsity swim coach.

Barney has enjoyed a successful career as university professor, educator and athletics director. He is the author of two books pertaining to UNM sports: Roy W. Johnson, a short biography, and Turmoil and Triumph, which details the history of intercollegiate athletics at UNM until 1950, and its implications in the social history of New Mexico.

Barney is one of the world’s pre-eminent scholars of the Olympic Movement. He has authored more than 200 publications, chapters, articles and reviews related to Olympic themes. His crowning achievement was serving as founding director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies located at the University of Western Ontario in 1989. The Centre has achieved international acclaim. It publishes Olympika, the international journal of Olympic Studies. Barney is one of the few worldwide to have been awarded the coveted Olympic Order.

Bob joins his brother, Dave, in the Hall of Honor.