Friday morning was the last time I heard Bob Barry Jr.’s voice. I had forgotten my iPod when I left for the grocery store and, as a result of that lapse, was reduced to the archaic pastime of listening to the radio. My go-to, KGOU, was sputtering with interference, so I flipped over to WWLS for one of the few sports talk radio shows I could stomach: BBJ’s “Sports Morning” with Pat Jones.
I caught the last five minutes, during which BBJ hammed up the pronunciation of Marc Gasol’s name and mentioned that college football writer Tom Fornelli listed OU as one of his sleepers for the 2015 national championship. Once he introduced the midday show and signed off, off went the radio. That would be his final show.
Bob Barry Jr. — the son of Oklahoma broadcasting legend Bob Barry Sr. and a legend in his own right — died Saturday afternoon after a car making an illegal U-turn collided with his motor scooter. The KFOR sports director was 58.
I didn’t know BBJ personally, but it felt like I did. My mom worked with him while she was at Cumulus Media and had nothing but good things to say about him. I had only two interactions with him, but they were both positive. In high school, I called into his radio show and waited nearly half an hour to talk with him about the Thunder. In college, we brushed shoulders, briefly, on the media bus at the Sugar Bowl. During those two experiences, I got the same impression of his trademark professionalism and kindness as that remembered by those who knew him best.
Bob Barry Jr. was an affable, genuine person in a business full of egos, posturing, and impatience. I’ve been around a few prominent media personalities, and most of them would walk right past you without acknowledging your existence. If you did muster up the courage to try to introduce yourself, they’d stare right through you. But BBJ was the type of guy who would overhear a college kid talking about a Grantland story, lean in, and start chatting the kid up.
People have called him a legend, a giant, and a member of Oklahoma sports royalty. He spent more than 30 years at KFOR — he began working there in 1982 after graduating from the University of Oklahoma — and had a radio show on The Sports Animal since 1993. In 1997, he succeeded his father as KFOR’s sports director, a position he would hold until his death. During this impressive career, Barry garnered several awards, including being voted Oklahoma Sportscaster of the Year in 2003 and 2004.
But let’s not lose sight of BBJ’s real legacy. Yes, he was good at his job. More importantly, though, he was a good person. And that’s how he should be remembered — not as an award-winning sports broadcaster or the son of Bob Barry Sr., but as a genuinely good human being. That alone makes him worth remembering.
