The Role of Interuniversity Athletics: A Canadian Perspective

Robert Barney was Professor of Physical Education at the University of Western Ontario in London.

Aside from general everyday newspaper commentary, literature dealing with the subject of interuniversity sport in Canada is scant indeed. Far more focus, for instance, is applied by reader and viewer alike on professional sport and on the top levels of amateur sport. Thus, the published proceedings of a recent (1986) conference held on the subject of interuniversity sport holds some merit. Stemming from the initiative of the Canadian Council of University Administrators of Physical Education, who were prompted by an array of problems plaguing university athletic programs, a conference evolved which attempted to address their concerns and the concerns of others whose vocation and avocation reflected a relationship with competitive athletics at the university level. Among such athletic types taking part in the conference, and whose experience and counsel lent to the two-day proceedings, were university presidents, deans and directors of schools and faculties of physical education, university registrars, university athletics administrators (athletic directors), representatives from several of the individual university athletic conference alignments across Canada, student athletes, officials of both provincial and federal sports governing bodies, and just plain university academics (professors) whose individual research interest has been in sport in general.

Several problems face university athletics in Canada, some of them of long standing. In many ways they reflect differences in size, resources, and zeal for regional and national attention. Those three factors impinge on basic philosophy about what the role should be for interuniversity athletics on a specific campus, on the problem of funding inadequacies, on the controversy surrounding athletic scholarships, and on the question of federal support and subsequent influence. As with the NCAA in the United States, the CIAU (Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union) has failed to nationalize disparate regional and institutional motives and attitudes underlying university athletic programs.

A.W. Taylor, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Education at the host institution of the conference (the University of Western Ontario), had the unenviable task of organizing a published proceedings from the mass of individual papers read, questions and answers posed, and debate which at times was a direct reflection of why university athletics in Canada have problems. The conference revolved around five themes: historical developments, external factors affecting interuniversity athletics, internal factors affecting interuniversity athletics, the role of interuniversity athletics: a president’s perspective; and interuniversity athletics: funding the program.

Needless to say, the problem issues, being persistent over time, gained no solution as a result of conference thinking and interchange. But the hope is that they were laid bare so that their solution might arise from better understanding and eventual compromise.