Barry is honored for service as coach> Cohen praises ex-Ram leader for lessons

BANGOR – It seems that no matter where they go or what they do, Frederick “Red” Barry’s former players, students and colleagues don’t forget the lessons taught by the tough, intense 22-year Bangor High School boys basketball coach.

Just Friday, Secretary of Defense William Cohen, who graduated from Bangor in 1958 and was a three-year starter for the Rams, found himself in a situation that called for the teammwork skills that he learned from Barry.

“This morning I came from a meeting at the White House with the President and the cabinet,” Cohen said. “We were all sitting around a table, making suggestions as a team. The things that I learned from him apply to any kind of team anywhere.”

And it’s not likely that Barry will ever forget the students he came in contact with as a coach, teacher and administrator at Bangor High. For his years of service, Barry received the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches’ Contributor Award at the MABC awards dinner Friday at Husson College.

Barry suffered a stroke on Feb. 28, 1989 – his 66th birthday – and is unable to walk, speak, or write. Barry’s oldest son, Fred Jr., accepted the award for the legendary coach with Barry’s wife, Maxine, daughter, younger son and grandchildren watching the ceremony.

“I think he was very surprised,” Fred Barry Jr. said of his father’s reaction upon hearing of the award. “He always thought those kinds of awards should go to someone else.”

By the numbers alone Barry earned the recognition. A member of the Maine Sports Hall of Fame, he coached the Rams to two state championships and two appearances in the New England championships, claiming runner-up honors in 1959. His Bangor teams won six Eastern Maine crowns and made 18 Eastern Maine tournament appearances.

Barry retired from the team in 1969 with a 281-69 record. He also coached baseball, was an assistant football coach, taught history and served as the school’s athletic director until 1978.

It was clear that many of the younger basketball players in attendance hadn’t heard of Barry until Friday’s ceremony or maybe only knew his name from the Bangor High gymnasium, which was dedicated to Barry in 1989.

But to those people who know Barry, such as MABC president Ron Brown and broadcaster George Hale, he has left a strong impression.

Cohen remembers Barry as an intense coach who demanded the best from his players.

“I remember playing in a game of 3-on-3 with him in the old high school on Harlow Street,” Cohen said. “He was tough, challenging, taunting, always pushing to see how high I could go. He always raised the bar to push us to the limit.”

Life is a lot different for Barry since his stroke. Maxine Barry stopped working 10 years ago to care for him. She said Barry saw a therapist for a while to help him learn to write but stopped going when he wasn’t progressing – he is able to write “Fred” but not much else.

“Sometimes I don’t have a clue as to what he wants. It’s a struggle to find out what he wants for lunch,” Maxine Barry said. “His mind is fine. He remembers everything but sometimes it’s like a guessing game. At times it’s very frustrating for him and for me, too.”

Still, Barry and his family cherish the old stories and former players who continue to think of the coach as a father figure.

Fred Barry Jr., who tagged along with his father in the last decade of his coaching career, recalled a trip to Aroostook County with a new manager who took Barry’s instruction to put bottles of soda under the bus literally – and left them sitting on a street in Houlton.

“Red was mad for a while,” Fred Barry Jr. said. “But we’ve gotten a lot of laughs out of that over the years.”