Barry Kass ends family tradition; announcing his final SAHS football game tonight

When St Augustine High School Yellow Jackets square off against a century-old rival, Palatka High School, a local family tradition will come to an end.  Local sportscasting icon, Barry Snyder Kass, will hang up his microphone for the last time.

Barry’s father, Jerry Kass, became the announcer for St. Augustine football games at the invitation of school superintendent Doug Hartley.  That was the same year Barry was born, 1946.  Jerry announced Yellow Jackets’ football games for over 60 years, until his death in 2012.

Barry, now 75-years-old, officially started announcing for the Jackets in the early 1970s.  There has been a Kass in the high school press box for over 75 years.  That statistic will remain unbroken in Yellow Jacket football history for decades to come.

St. Augustine won its first state football championship in 2005 and Barry was on board for the action.  He was ecstatic, and even received a championship ring with his name on it for the 2005 season. 

“That was probably one of my most special moments of doing this,” Kass said in a published interview.  He says he still gets goosebumps every time he talks about it.

Barry graduated from St Augustine High School in 1964.  He and his wife, Carol, live in St Augustine on Moultrie Bluff. His younger sister Robin Kass Burchfield, who was a popular SAHS cheerleader, graduated in 1972.

Reflecting on his key role as the voice of Yellow Jackets football games, Barry was quoted, humbly saying, “I don’t do this for recognition.  I’m doing this for my dad.”