John J. Maskas, 62, veteran coach at schools in Bucks and Burlington Counties, collapsed Wednesday night and was pronounced dead of an apparent heart attack a few minutes later at Southern Ocean County Hospital in Manahawkin, N.J.

Football coach and director of physical education at Lenape Regional High School in Medford, N.J., Mr. Maskas was between games in girls' basketball league play in the gymnasium at Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin when he was stricken.

He had just coached a girls' junior varsity team to victory and was directing the girls' varsity team in pre-game warmup when he collapsed.

A star athlete at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where he was named to several little all-America squads and took titles in wrestling and boxing, he went on to play as offensive guard with the Buffalo Bills in the old All- American Football Conference.

After three years' play, he left to earn a master's degree at the University of Pittsburgh and then coached at Virginia Polytechnic, Wooster College and Delaware Valley College in Doylestown.

He coached at Central Bucks High School in Doylestown from 1955 to 1966, when he accepted appointment to the post at Lenape Regional.

A big man with a temper to match, his ire could rise to towering heights when game play went sour and when he thought the officials' calls followed suit. With sufficient provocation he would leap higher than the bench, hurl down his hat and send it down the line in a high punt.

He served with the Marine Corps during World War II and fought in the Pacific islands campaign, starting with Guadalcanal.

He lived in Medford Lakes and was active in community affairs. He was a Mason.

Surviving are his wife, Kate N.; daughters, Margaret Ann and Jane Stoutland; son, James J.; two grandchildren, and a sister.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Thomas Greek Orthodox Church, Mercer Street, Cherry Hill, N.J. Burial will be in Odd Fellows Cemetery, Medford.

John Maskas (1920)