Barker, a native of Yorktown, Ind., was a burly 6-foot-2 inch forward on the 1948 Kentucky team that finished the season with a 36-3 record, the national title and the nickname of the Fabulous Five. The other starters were Wallace (Wah Wah) Jones at forward, Kenny Rollins at guard and two all-Americans: Alex Groza at center and Ralph Beard at guard. Their coach was Adolph Rupp.

After that season, the Kentucky team played in the trials to select the United States team for the 1948 Olympics. In the final game of the trials, Kentucky lost by 4 points to the Phillips Oilers, a semiprofessional team. The five Kentucky starters joined Phillips players on the Olympic team and won the gold medal.

In 1949, Kentucky, with a 32-2 record, won the N.C.A.A. championship again. Then the team of Barker, Groza, Beard, Jones and Joe Holland turned professional and became the nucleus and part-owners of the Indianapolis Olympians of the N.B.A

Barker was older than his college teammates at Kentucky because he left school after his freshman year to serve in the Army Air Forces.

A gunner in a B-17 bomber, he was shot down over Germany and held as a prison of war there for 16 months. He filled idle time in prison camp by bouncing and passing a volleyball, the only ball he could find. When he returned to college, his ball-handling skills were remarkable.

"He had good hands, exceptional hand," his Kentucky teammate Rollins said. "His hands were very sensitive to the ball. And he was able to visualize things on the floor that other people couldn't see."

After his pro career, Barker taught and coached at high schools in Indiana, Kentucky and Florida. His last public appearance came Feb. 1 when the surviving members of the Fabulous Five (Groza died in 1995) were introduced before the Kentucky-Florida game.

Shot down during bombing mission over Brunswick, Germany 30 Jan 1944 in B-17G #42-37856 'Fancy Nancy III. ' Prisoner of War (POW).

POW