Bio

Barry Crawford – Men's Basketball, 1980-82

Barry Crawford was a scoring spark for the 1980-81 and 1981-82 Penn State Altoona Cougar men’s basketball team. While averaging over 20 points per game in his career, he scored in double figures in 48 of his 49 career games while leading the team to a 1981 Commonwealth Campus Championship.

His freshman year highlights for Coach George Obermeier’s squad included a 27-point, 11-rebound performance in the opening round of the Skyline Athletic Conference Tournament, as well as scoring 15 and 12 points, respectively, in the Western Division Title Game and Commonwealth Championship Game, despite a nagging ankle injury.

He captained the Cougars in his sophomore campaign, while again averaging over 20 points per game. Crawford poured on 37 points against Potomac State, which had four scholarship players. Other highlights were a 31-point performance in a Mount Aloysius tilt, a 27-point, 11-rebound double-double versus Penn State Beaver, and 19 points against Division III Juniata. 

A young Altoona Mirror beat writer, Neil Rudel, described him as “steady Barry Crawford, who quietly kills the opposition.”

According to Coach Obermeier: “Barry was hard to defend. He had an extremely quick first step, so if opponents guarded him too closely, he would go around them. However, he was an unbelievably accurate shooter, so they couldn’t give him too much space. Barry was very unselfish and he played great defense. He was the best all-around player I coached at Penn State Altoona.”