Ontario University Athletics is a regional membership association for Canadian universities which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providing contact information, schedules, results, and releases about those programs and events to the public and the media. This is similar to what would be called a college athletic conference in the United States. OUA, which covers Ontario, is one of four such bodies that are members of the country's governing body for university athletics, U Sports. The other three regional associations coordinating university-level sports in Canada are Atlantic University Sport (AUS), the Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CW), and Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ).

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.