Pete Barto, Kenneth Garrett and Curt Jack named to Kutztown Hall of Fame

Pete Barto, Ken Garrett and Curt Jack will be inducted into the Kutztown Area High School Athletic Hall of Fame at a high school football game on October 19 at halftime.

Pete Barto was a three-sport athlete at Kutztown High School – soccer, golf, and basketball, graduating in 1952. In soccer, he was a starter as a junior and senior. The 1950 team was Berks County champs in his junior year. In golf, Baro was captain of the KHS team that tied for the Central Penn championship with a 10-2 record.

Baro was a three-year starter on two state championship teams - 1950 and 51- and on a state runner-up championship team in 1952. Kutztown’s record during these three years was 85-7. In the words of the school newspaper, the KU-HI-NU: “Basketball, how easily we use the word, and how much for granted we take the game here at Kutztown.”

Pete scored 892 points in his basketball career and led the team in scoring in 1951-52 with 495 points. Pete was rewarded with first team All-State honors by both the AP and UPI newspaper services in 1951-52. After high school he played basketball for four years in the United States Air Force.

Kenneth Garrett, a math teacher in the Kutztown District for many years, was the girls’ track coach from 1976 to 1980, guiding the teams to division championships in 1977, 79, and 80. He had 38 county qualifiers, 14 district, and 5 state qualifiers.

Garrett was also the girls’ softball coach from 1983-1985. During his tenure, Kutztown was division, district and state runner-up in 1983, division, county, cistrict, and state champs in 1984, and district runner-up in 1985. His teams had an overall record of 68-11 during his coaching years in softball.

From 1986-90,Garrett was the athletic director for the Kutztown Area District. With the help of Tom Roth and his family, Ken organized and manned many fundraisers to erect the seating and the lighting at the present-day athletic stadium with no money from the school district.

Curt Jack, KAHS 1979 graduate, was a three-year letter athlete in soccer and basketball. He was selected to the All-County team as a goalie in 1978.

During his career in basketball at Kutztown, he scored 1,084 points, and has the unique distinction of being half of the brother/sister pair scoring over 1.000 points at Kutztown. His sister, Stacey (Jack) Edwards, graduated from KAHS in 1983. He also shares the 1,000 points honors with his son Donovan, who scored 1.000 points for Reading Central Catholic/ Berks Catholic.

Curt was All-Division in 1978 and 1979, All-County, and AP All-State Honorable Mention in 1979. He earned three varsity letters, was team captain his senior year, and played on the West Reading summer basketball team that traveled to Sacramento, California.

Jack attained two varsity letters in baseball and was awarded the Dean Danner Memorial Award for the best male athlete in 1979. He continued his basketball career at Muhlenberg College, earning four varsity letters and being named co-captain in 1982.