Barry Lischner was a man among boys when we first met sixty years ago. He was the friend we all wanted.
I called him on Sunday, January 24th to check on how he was doing. His wife Stacey answered and said he had passed away that morning. Another heartbreaking loss for our class.
Barry made athletics special for our class. He made his teammates better. He taught everyone how to win. And he lived everyday with the kindest smile on his face you had ever seen.
Barry loved making us laugh. He cared deeply about our families and he stayed connected throughout his entire life. A friend I shall cherish forever. May he rest in peace.
I also wish I would have known Barry better. And Tom yes, he was a giant among us. When Rick Slone wrote about an anonymous individual who bailed him out when he was threatened in the stairwell at Allderdice, it was Lischner who did the bailing.
His name invokes the famous quote "You beat the House and the House beats you" in reference to Westinghouse High School, whom Allderdice beat in 1964 (or was it 1963?). I'm sure Lischner had a hand in that memorable (?) victory. Selfishly, I only remember the bus being pelted with rocks on our exit from Westinghouse's field.
I only heard about Barry's continued success in football from Rick Slone.
I also learned of the continued development of their deep frienship that enhanced the character and the compassion of both of these men who were seen by many of us as more idols than real persons. It seems fitting to me that they would die close to each other in time. They were very much linked together in life as men and as sportsmen and as both gentle and strong men.
All our classmates remember Barry as funny, boisterous, great to be around, evryone's friend, and a remarkable athlete. Those who know him now marvel at his spiritual development. This lead him to care deeply for others. Barry missed one of our reunions, because he had promised to meet with a group who needed to hear his words. He wanted those he touched to feel better and be better, to have what he had - equanimity and peace. So many of you have done amazing things. Barry was one of the most succesful of our classmates.
I received a two page letter from Barry a few days before his death. Shaky hand writing, first ever writing from him. He wrote, "to my good friend Sandy" and ended with "In Joy Barry." No complaining, no foreshadowing of his imminent death. His brother Charlie couldn't believe that he possibly had the strength or energy to write this letter. It was a selfless act, trying until the end to teach me what he deeply believed and found invaluable. This letter was symbolic of what Barry had worked hard to make his life become.
I am so fortunate that Barry and Rick were my great friends. i know that many others feel the same way. Talking to them always made me feel better.
Barry was a guy you don't forget. I was lucky enough to know him in high school and at his home. He had 2 younger twin brothers as I recall. He always called me Brute as there was a sports writer for the Press or PG. After he graduated Allderdice, he did well at U of Missouri. He played in the Blue-gray game for college seniors. Much like the Senior bowl, etc. A good good person all the way around
Rick had great respect and affection for Barry. They were close friends that spoke often throughout the years. I can only imagine the content of those conversations from philosophy to love to sports to the stairwell save that Henry remembered and anything else that might have touched their hearts. A continuing topic of conversation for us was Barry’s transformation and daily inspirational meditation practice. Rick would have written something touching and funny and brilliant here – but we still have this from Rick that he posted on Keith’s In-Memory page. Thought you might want to read it again. Joyce
And one other thing . . .
From time to time Lischner would find himself on I 95 near Daytona going to or coming from an ashram. You read that right, Barry Lischner, an ashram. Somewhere up near Jacksonville where for years and years he’d go to meditate. Still does.
This is important to the story because it’s emblematic of Barry’s transformation from the kid who grew up in the Hazelwood projects, who found himself in gang fights with the blacks who lived in his neighborhood, I’m talking serious fights, with table legs and bicycle chains, broken bottles, Barry, who was known to drop the N word, whom I once heard yell from underneath a pile of Westinghouse players, “Get off me you black bastard.” That Barry. Keith, too, at that time himself was not wholly unsympathetic to Barry’s point of view regarding race, and all this while some of us were marching for SNCC and CORE, living in our insulated middle class ‘hood where the only blacks we saw were the women waiting for the Homewood bus after a day cleaning our houses.
Oh, yeah, and Milt Ashford.
After college Barry taught and coached in an all-black high school in Miami. He did for decades. Kind of a karmic joke, right? It didn’t take long for Barry to turn around. The kids turned him around. He became so well-liked he’d be invited to his ex-students’ weddings, to family gatherings, was even godfather to a couple of his ex-students’ kids.
Things change, sometimes in ways we’d never predict and sometimes, a bigger surprise, for the better.
During these years, driving on I 95 going to or from the ashram, Barry would call Keith from the road and if Keith were home, Barry would stop to visit. On this particular occasion Keith was waiting for Barry in his driveway. They chatted there awhile and as Barry told me the story, he was wondering why Keith did not invite him into the house like he usually did.
Ten or fifteen minutes pass, they’re still in the driveway, still chatting, when one of Keith’s sons, in his twenties then, walks out with a baby in his arms. Not just a baby. A black baby. An Afro American baby.
Now Barry puts it together. Keith, he figures, isn’t sure how his old friend is going to view this new addition to the family, his grandson, and given what Keith probably remembered of Barry from high school, his racism, no other word for it, “Get off of me you black bastard,” he was reluctant to bring Barry into the house where he’d surely see the kid. That plus somehow Keith hadn’t been privy to Barry’s metamorphosis were the reasons they were in the driveway. Keith wanted to avoid what he imagined what might have been an awkward situation. Until Keith’s son forced the issue. Anyway, that is how Barry interpreted it.
Keith’s son is holding his kid up for Barry to see and Keith is looking at Barry wondering what his reaction will be. They’ve been friends forever. Keith not only likes Barry, he respects him, he values his good opinion.
The son holds the kid out and Barry takes the kid in his arms. “What a beautiful baby!” Barry says. He doesn't have to think about it. The words come spontaneously. He means it. It is a beautiful baby.
Later, inside, Keith holding his grandson now, just Keith, Barry and the baby, the rest of the family off doing something else in another part of the house, Keith confesses, teary almost, or that detail could just be something I added to the picture, of the many adjectives you could use to describe Keith, “sentimental” wouldn’t be among the first fifty, Keith says to Barry, says it from the deepest part of his heart, “This baby is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Things change, sometimes in ways we’d never predict and sometimes for the better.
That was a great story about Barry and Keith, Joyce. I remember when Rick originally posted it, and I am glad you posted it again. Given the era of de-facto segregation in which we grew up, pretty much all of us had to realign our values and behavior in terms of dealing with other races and cultures, and I hope that we have all done as well as Barry apparently did at making that transformation.
My condolences to Barry's family and his many friends, including all those whose lives he made better. Though our respective paths at Allderdice only crossed and seldom ran together for more than a few steps, Barry was certainly someone that it was impossible not to know. It was very interesting to trace Barry's football career after Allderdice through the University of Missouri, the Blue-Grey game, and the NFL draft.
Regarding Henry's recollection of the altercation after a football game with Westinghouse, I have some memories of an incident that happened at South Stadium. Maybe it was the same one. I think it was our senior year (1963) that we played Westinghouse at that neutral site, but I could be mistaken about that -- maybe it was junior year (1962). Anyway, I was attending the game via a bus from Allderdice, and some Westinghouse students came up as we were getting ready to leave and rocked the bus -- and maybe some rocks were also thrown as Henry recalls. We escaped shaken but unscathed.
I would like to think that we "beat the 'House" that day -- Tom Beckett or others who were on the football probably can enlighten us in that regard, but I believe the problem, in either case, stemmed from a fight that broke out on the field during what was a hotly contested game. Our yearbook has a lot of pictures of the sports teams but unfortunately doesn't supply any information on schedule or record for any of the teams.
Some Pittsburgh high school sports history for those interested ... Westinghouse really dominated City League football in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 60s under Coach Pete Dimperio. He coached at Westinghouse for 21 years from 1946-1966. The 1963 team was especially powerful with running backs Wesley Garnett -- later drafted by the NFL San Diego Chargers -- and Orin Richburg -- who won the 100, 220, and anchored the 880 relay team to victory at the PIAA Track and Field Championships in 1964. The QB and FB were also speedsters (Givens and Henderson? Not sure about their names, can somebody help me here?). Sadly, the Westinghouse team captain was murdered about 3 weeks after Westinghouse won the City Championship. Richburg became a good friend as we met many times thereafter at many venues -- such as the Penn Relays -- through track.
Peabody interrupted the Westinghouse football championship string in 1962, our junior year, so maybe we did beat the 'House if the game Henry remembers was played that year. It was nice to see that Allerdice won the City League football championship in 1967. Here is a website that provides year-by-year information:
Of course we did win three City Championships our senior year -- in golf, swimming, and baseball, tying Westinghouse for the most. And two of theirs were basically in the same sport -- Track and Field -- as they were credited with championships in both Track and Track Relays. Fifth Avenue won cross-country and basketball, Peabody took volleyball, and Washington Vocational won soccer. So I guess overall we did "beat the 'House" in 1963-64!
I posted this on one of the forums, and I thought it should be reposted here to be avoid any confusion. TAHS did not beat Westinghouse in football in either 1963 or 1964, and there was no incident either year involving student buses or South High Stadium. Westinghouse beat us at TAHS in 1963 and there were no violent incidents during or after the game. In 1964, our senior year, we played them at their field. For those who don't remember, Westinghouse played its home games at the Silver Lake Drive-In on Washington Blvd. The posts where they kept the speakers to listen to the movies in your car were removed and the post holes were filled, and the field was lined with the yard markers and other necessary lines.
TAHS had pretty high hopes going into that game, as we were undefeated and I believe had beaten both Peabody and Schenley by bigger scores than Westinghouse had. Those hopes were quickly dashed. Westinghouse had two great halfbacks, Wesley Garnett and Oren Richmond, and they ran successful reverses and double reverses out of Dimperio's Wing T all game long. I'm pretty sure the final score was 28-0. Nothing happened after that game either.
The incident with the buses occurred in 1967, after all of us had graduated. That year, TAHS QB Lew Krause, cousin of our Jackie Bazell, led TAHS to an upset victory over Westinghouse in the City Championship game at South High Stadium. It was TAHS' first win over Westinghouse in FB since the early 1950s, when my uncle, Jack Brourman, who later played at Carnegie Tech, had been the QB. I was going to Pitt at the time and was covering the freshman football team for The Pitt News. I attended the game with Lloyd Weston, a member of the Pitt freshman team who had been a High School All-American at Westinghouse (and later became a professor at Pitt) and his brother, Mike Weston, who also had played at Westinghouse. I felt very safe.
After the game, some fans returned home via the 10th Street Bridge, and there were reports of buses filled with TAHS students having rocks thrown at them and some reports of threats by Westinghouse supporters to throw students off the bridge. However, there was no actual violence that I can recall.
Tom Beckett
Barry Lischner was a man among boys when we first met sixty years ago. He was the friend we all wanted.
I called him on Sunday, January 24th to check on how he was doing. His wife Stacey answered and said he had passed away that morning. Another heartbreaking loss for our class.
Barry made athletics special for our class. He made his teammates better. He taught everyone how to win. And he lived everyday with the kindest smile on his face you had ever seen.
Barry loved making us laugh. He cared deeply about our families and he stayed connected throughout his entire life. A friend I shall cherish forever. May he rest in peace.
Tom Beckett
Henry Henry (Herskovitz)
I also wish I would have known Barry better. And Tom yes, he was a giant among us. When Rick Slone wrote about an anonymous individual who bailed him out when he was threatened in the stairwell at Allderdice, it was Lischner who did the bailing.
His name invokes the famous quote "You beat the House and the House beats you" in reference to Westinghouse High School, whom Allderdice beat in 1964 (or was it 1963?). I'm sure Lischner had a hand in that memorable (?) victory. Selfishly, I only remember the bus being pelted with rocks on our exit from Westinghouse's field.
Go Dragons, RIP Barry
Paul Safyan
I only heard about Barry's continued success in football from Rick Slone.
I also learned of the continued development of their deep frienship that enhanced the character and the compassion of both of these men who were seen by many of us as more idols than real persons. It seems fitting to me that they would die close to each other in time. They were very much linked together in life as men and as sportsmen and as both gentle and strong men.
Sanford Neiman
All our classmates remember Barry as funny, boisterous, great to be around, evryone's friend, and a remarkable athlete. Those who know him now marvel at his spiritual development. This lead him to care deeply for others. Barry missed one of our reunions, because he had promised to meet with a group who needed to hear his words. He wanted those he touched to feel better and be better, to have what he had - equanimity and peace. So many of you have done amazing things. Barry was one of the most succesful of our classmates.
I received a two page letter from Barry a few days before his death. Shaky hand writing, first ever writing from him. He wrote, "to my good friend Sandy" and ended with "In Joy Barry." No complaining, no foreshadowing of his imminent death. His brother Charlie couldn't believe that he possibly had the strength or energy to write this letter. It was a selfless act, trying until the end to teach me what he deeply believed and found invaluable. This letter was symbolic of what Barry had worked hard to make his life become.
I am so fortunate that Barry and Rick were my great friends. i know that many others feel the same way. Talking to them always made me feel better.
Edward Kramer
Barry was a guy you don't forget.I was lucky enough to know him in high school and at his home. He had 2 younger twin brothers as I recall. He always called me Brute as there was a sports writer for the Press or PG.
After he graduated Allderdice, he did well at U of Missouri. He played in the Blue-gray game for college seniors. Much like the Senior bowl, etc.
A good good person all the way around
Ed Kramer
Joyce Marcus
Rick had great respect and affection for Barry. They were close friends that spoke often throughout the years. I can only imagine the content of those conversations from philosophy to love to sports to the stairwell save that Henry remembered and anything else that might have touched their hearts. A continuing topic of conversation for us was Barry’s transformation and daily inspirational meditation practice. Rick would have written something touching and funny and brilliant here – but we still have this from Rick that he posted on Keith’s In-Memory page. Thought you might want to read it again. Joyce
And one other thing . . .
From time to time Lischner would find himself on I 95 near Daytona going to or coming from an ashram. You read that right, Barry Lischner, an ashram. Somewhere up near Jacksonville where for years and years he’d go to meditate. Still does.
This is important to the story because it’s emblematic of Barry’s transformation from the kid who grew up in the Hazelwood projects, who found himself in gang fights with the blacks who lived in his neighborhood, I’m talking serious fights, with table legs and bicycle chains, broken bottles, Barry, who was known to drop the N word, whom I once heard yell from underneath a pile of Westinghouse players, “Get off me you black bastard.” That Barry. Keith, too, at that time himself was not wholly unsympathetic to Barry’s point of view regarding race, and all this while some of us were marching for SNCC and CORE, living in our insulated middle class ‘hood where the only blacks we saw were the women waiting for the Homewood bus after a day cleaning our houses.
Oh, yeah, and Milt Ashford.
After college Barry taught and coached in an all-black high school in Miami. He did for decades. Kind of a karmic joke, right? It didn’t take long for Barry to turn around. The kids turned him around. He became so well-liked he’d be invited to his ex-students’ weddings, to family gatherings, was even godfather to a couple of his ex-students’ kids.
Things change, sometimes in ways we’d never predict and sometimes, a bigger surprise, for the better.
During these years, driving on I 95 going to or from the ashram, Barry would call Keith from the road and if Keith were home, Barry would stop to visit. On this particular occasion Keith was waiting for Barry in his driveway. They chatted there awhile and as Barry told me the story, he was wondering why Keith did not invite him into the house like he usually did.
Ten or fifteen minutes pass, they’re still in the driveway, still chatting, when one of Keith’s sons, in his twenties then, walks out with a baby in his arms. Not just a baby. A black baby. An Afro American baby.
Now Barry puts it together. Keith, he figures, isn’t sure how his old friend is going to view this new addition to the family, his grandson, and given what Keith probably remembered of Barry from high school, his racism, no other word for it, “Get off of me you black bastard,” he was reluctant to bring Barry into the house where he’d surely see the kid. That plus somehow Keith hadn’t been privy to Barry’s metamorphosis were the reasons they were in the driveway. Keith wanted to avoid what he imagined what might have been an awkward situation. Until Keith’s son forced the issue. Anyway, that is how Barry interpreted it.
Keith’s son is holding his kid up for Barry to see and Keith is looking at Barry wondering what his reaction will be. They’ve been friends forever. Keith not only likes Barry, he respects him, he values his good opinion.
The son holds the kid out and Barry takes the kid in his arms. “What a beautiful baby!” Barry says. He doesn't have to think about it. The words come spontaneously. He means it. It is a beautiful baby.
Later, inside, Keith holding his grandson now, just Keith, Barry and the baby, the rest of the family off doing something else in another part of the house, Keith confesses, teary almost, or that detail could just be something I added to the picture, of the many adjectives you could use to describe Keith, “sentimental” wouldn’t be among the first fifty, Keith says to Barry, says it from the deepest part of his heart, “This baby is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Things change, sometimes in ways we’d never predict and sometimes for the better.
Jaquelin Bazell (Mejak)
Amen Joyce...beautiful
Tom Allison
That was a great story about Barry and Keith, Joyce. I remember when Rick originally posted it, and I am glad you posted it again. Given the era of de-facto segregation in which we grew up, pretty much all of us had to realign our values and behavior in terms of dealing with other races and cultures, and I hope that we have all done as well as Barry apparently did at making that transformation.
My condolences to Barry's family and his many friends, including all those whose lives he made better. Though our respective paths at Allderdice only crossed and seldom ran together for more than a few steps, Barry was certainly someone that it was impossible not to know. It was very interesting to trace Barry's football career after Allderdice through the University of Missouri, the Blue-Grey game, and the NFL draft.
Tom Allison
Regarding Henry's recollection of the altercation after a football game with Westinghouse, I have some memories of an incident that happened at South Stadium. Maybe it was the same one. I think it was our senior year (1963) that we played Westinghouse at that neutral site, but I could be mistaken about that -- maybe it was junior year (1962). Anyway, I was attending the game via a bus from Allderdice, and some Westinghouse students came up as we were getting ready to leave and rocked the bus -- and maybe some rocks were also thrown as Henry recalls. We escaped shaken but unscathed.
I would like to think that we "beat the 'House" that day -- Tom Beckett or others who were on the football probably can enlighten us in that regard, but I believe the problem, in either case, stemmed from a fight that broke out on the field during what was a hotly contested game. Our yearbook has a lot of pictures of the sports teams but unfortunately doesn't supply any information on schedule or record for any of the teams.
Some Pittsburgh high school sports history for those interested ... Westinghouse really dominated City League football in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 60s under Coach Pete Dimperio. He coached at Westinghouse for 21 years from 1946-1966. The 1963 team was especially powerful with running backs Wesley Garnett -- later drafted by the NFL San Diego Chargers -- and Orin Richburg -- who won the 100, 220, and anchored the 880 relay team to victory at the PIAA Track and Field Championships in 1964. The QB and FB were also speedsters (Givens and Henderson? Not sure about their names, can somebody help me here?). Sadly, the Westinghouse team captain was murdered about 3 weeks after Westinghouse won the City Championship. Richburg became a good friend as we met many times thereafter at many venues -- such as the Penn Relays -- through track.
Peabody interrupted the Westinghouse football championship string in 1962, our junior year, so maybe we did beat the 'House if the game Henry remembers was played that year. It was nice to see that Allerdice won the City League football championship in 1967. Here is a website that provides year-by-year information:
https://www.pghschools.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=1102&dataid=2911&FileName=PITTSBURGH%20HIGH%20SCHOOLS%20CHAMPIONSHIP%20TEAMS.pdf
Of course we did win three City Championships our senior year -- in golf, swimming, and baseball, tying Westinghouse for the most. And two of theirs were basically in the same sport -- Track and Field -- as they were credited with championships in both Track and Track Relays. Fifth Avenue won cross-country and basketball, Peabody took volleyball, and Washington Vocational won soccer. So I guess overall we did "beat the 'House" in 1963-64!
Michael Brourman
I posted this on one of the forums, and I thought it should be reposted here to be avoid any confusion. TAHS did not beat Westinghouse in football in either 1963 or 1964, and there was no incident either year involving student buses or South High Stadium. Westinghouse beat us at TAHS in 1963 and there were no violent incidents during or after the game. In 1964, our senior year, we played them at their field. For those who don't remember, Westinghouse played its home games at the Silver Lake Drive-In on Washington Blvd. The posts where they kept the speakers to listen to the movies in your car were removed and the post holes were filled, and the field was lined with the yard markers and other necessary lines.
TAHS had pretty high hopes going into that game, as we were undefeated and I believe had beaten both Peabody and Schenley by bigger scores than Westinghouse had. Those hopes were quickly dashed. Westinghouse had two great halfbacks, Wesley Garnett and Oren Richmond, and they ran successful reverses and double reverses out of Dimperio's Wing T all game long. I'm pretty sure the final score was 28-0. Nothing happened after that game either.
The incident with the buses occurred in 1967, after all of us had graduated. That year, TAHS QB Lew Krause, cousin of our Jackie Bazell, led TAHS to an upset victory over Westinghouse in the City Championship game at South High Stadium. It was TAHS' first win over Westinghouse in FB since the early 1950s, when my uncle, Jack Brourman, who later played at Carnegie Tech, had been the QB. I was going to Pitt at the time and was covering the freshman football team for The Pitt News. I attended the game with Lloyd Weston, a member of the Pitt freshman team who had been a High School All-American at Westinghouse (and later became a professor at Pitt) and his brother, Mike Weston, who also had played at Westinghouse. I felt very safe.
After the game, some fans returned home via the 10th Street Bridge, and there were reports of buses filled with TAHS students having rocks thrown at them and some reports of threats by Westinghouse supporters to throw students off the bridge. However, there was no actual violence that I can recall.