Longtime Oklahoma sportscaster Bob Barry Sr. dies

Bob Barry Sr., the man Bud Wilkinson picked to announce Oklahoma Sooners football games, has died.

Staff Reports | Modified: October 30, 2011 at 11:59 am | Published: October 30, 2011

Bob Barry Sr., the man Bud Wilkinson selected to announce Oklahoma Sooners football games, has died from a heart attack at age 80.

The Norman resident was found at home Sunday morning by son Frank Barry. Neighbors noticed Barry Sr. had not picked up his newspaper or mail.

photo - Bob Barry Sr, in his memorabilia room at his home in Norman, Monday, August, 18, 2008. The room was Bob Barry Jr.'s bedroom. Photo by David McDaniel, The Oklahoman

Bob Barry Sr, in his memorabilia room at his home in Norman, Monday, August, 18, 2008. The room was Bob Barry Jr.'s bedroom. Photo by David McDaniel, The Oklahoman

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Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at St. John's Episcopal Church in Norman.

Barry Sr. ended a 50-year broadcasting career in March, when the OU men’s basketball team played Texas at the Big 12 Championships. The Classen High and OU graduate and Air Force veteran started his broadcasting career in 1955. He called Norman High School football games for KNOR before he was chosen out of 14 candidates to do OU football.

“I do think to this day that I had an advantage because Bud used to listen to me at Norman High where his two sons, Jay and Pat, played when he could go to the games,” Barry Sr. told The Oklahoman in September 2010.

Barry Sr. was radio voice of the Sooners from 1961-72. He switched to Oklahoma State, covering the Cowboys from 1973-90. Known in Oklahoma as “The Legend,” Barry Sr. returned to OU in 1991. In between his duties at either OU or OSU — and a 1973-74 stint as the University of Tulsa basketball play-by-play man — he worked for KFOR-TV from 1966-2008. Barry Sr. was the television station’s sports director from 1970-97.

He was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

Bob Dotson, an NBC news correspondent who hosts American Story, worked at WKY-TV (now KFOR) from 1969-75. He told The Oklahoman on Sunday that Barry Sr.’s advice “set me on a path I follow to this day.”

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