My memories of Memphis Tiger football in the early 1990s are foggy. (For one thing, it was Memphis State football back then.) But my memories of Danton Barto — both his name and the human being who wore it, along with number 59 for the Tigers — remain distinct. Playing for teams that won games with defense, Barto was the Tiger defense from 1990 to ’93.
I arrived in Memphis in the summer of 1991. I didn’t attend a lot of Tiger football games my first three years in the Mid-South, let alone report on them. But the handful of games I saw at the Liberty Bowl featured a consistent image, that of a hyperactive, if undersized, linebacker making tackles from sideline to sideline in hopes of keeping his team in a position to win. These were not great Memphis teams. The Tigers went 5-6 in ’91 (Barto led the team with 141 tackles), 6-5 in ’92 (Barto led the team with 127 tackles), and 6-5 in ’93 (Barto led the team with 144 tackles). But they beat Southern Cal (!) and Mississippi State Barto’s sophomore year. They beat Arkansas in both ’92 and ’93, and Mississippi State again Barto’s senior year. They brought smiles to this under-appreciated corner of the college football landscape.
And there was Barto’s name. A linebacker’s name. Say it along with Butkus, Nitschke, Bednarik, and Lambert. Danton Barto was born to be a linebacker, one who left an imprint with his tackles. Somehow, Barto never played in an NFL game. When he remained unsigned in the fall of 1994, I hung up my scout’s hat for good. I’ve since seen vastly inferior players line up behind a defensive line on fall Sundays. At the very least, Barto would have been a special-teams killer in the pro ranks.
Danton Barto died Sunday at the still-young age of 50 from complications of Covid-19. He had not been vaccinated, which will haunt those of us who remember him, and particularly those who knew and loved him. Would a pair of injections have protected Barto from the coronavirus? The likelihood is a resounding yes. The most tragic deaths are those that could be avoided, in Barto’s case with what now amounts to a simple medical decision.
The day will come — and it will be soon — when Danton Barto’s name and the stories associated with him bring smiles again. His impact was too positive, his love and devotion to Memphis (especially its flagship university) too large for the circumstances of his death to linger as a shadow. For now-veteran sportswriters and our ilk, we must “defog” our memories, to Saturday nights when number 59 was the best defensive player on the field at the Liberty Bowl. When Danton Barto’s next hit would be even more ferocious than his last. A man of impact then. A man of impact still.