Pitarresi: Remembering Terry Barr

Terry Barr died the other day.

 

I’m sure few readers of uticaod.com or The Observer-Dispatch remember Terry Barr. I do because he was one of my favorite pro football players in the 1950s and 1960s.

 

Barr was a wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, a team I had no particular allegiance to except that they always seemed kind of tough back in those days. I remembered that Barr wore number 44, but, no, that was Lions cornerback Dick LeBeau. I checked today and Barr wore 41, which pleases me no end because I wore 41 myself in two sports for four years and 41 always is part of my personal identification numbers, in case you want to hack into any of my accounts.

 

What did I like about Terry Barr? Well, he was a great receiver, very fast – a two-time Michigan 440 champion at Grand Rapids High School - and athletic, and he just looked like a football player. He and Gale Cogdill, the other wide receiver, made a good team. These guys were terrific athletes. If the guys today are better, largely because of better nutrition and conditioning program, they aren’t that much better. Barr was great fun to watch.

 

He died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

 

“He was suffering for quite some time, so I’m glad the Lord decided to take him home,” said his friend and teammate, Joe Schmidt, the Lions’ Hall of Fame linebacker.

 

Amen. But I’ll remember Terry Barr.