Barry Bremen

Who was Barry Bremen?

Barry Bremen was a West Bloomfield, Michigan, insurance and novelty goods salesman and marketing executive known in the sports world as The Great Imposter. From the period 1979 to 1986, the 6'4", "lean" Bremen posed as a Major League Baseball umpire in the World Series, a player in a Major League Baseball All-Star Game, a player in a National Basketball Association All-Star Game, a referee in the National Football League, a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and a professional golfer. He also posed as an Emmy Award accepter.

Bremen was a self-proclaimed jock who regularly played touch football, basketball and softball. His wife Margo, in a 1980 People magazine profile of the imposter, said Bremen was "fulfilling a grand fantasy to be in the limelight. He feels if you have no guts you have no glory in your life." His advice to other impostors: "Don't do it. It's against the law. Stay away. This is my act."