Terry Frei still student of history and sports

By Luke Graham

Terry Frei

Veteran sportswriter Terry Frei ('76) considers himself very knowledgeable on sports and the way plays develop in a game. But as he sat watching a Denver Broncos game a few years back with his father, Jerry, and Jack Elway, both former head college football coaches, Frei said he realized something about the crazy world of sportswriters.

"As sportswriters, we know actually very little about this game," he said.

Frei said he was amazed by how his father and Elway, without knowing the play call, could anticipate much of what was going to happen with only a quick look after the players broke from the huddle.

Frei, 50, has been writing about sports for more than 25 years. He said he got his start when he injured a knee playing baseball before his senior year at Wheat Ridge High School and could not play football. So he covered sports for the weekly Wheat Ridge Sentinel, for which he had been writing a youth column.

Since then, Frei has worked at the Rocky Mountain News, The Denver Post, The Oregonian in Portland, ESPN.com and The Sporting News. Frei has won the Sportswriter of the Year award both in Oregon and Colorado several times.

As a sports columnist, Frei has a unique writing style and often looks beyond the surface of a story for his columns. While at The Oregonian, Frei said, he gained a reputation "of bending over backwards to not jump on bandwagons. I judge everything on a case-by-case basis."

Frei said the worst thing that can happen to journalists is when they lose their readers' trust and develop a reputation for contrived and exaggerated positions. He said that when the readers' reactions become "here we go again," a columnist can no longer be effective.

This may be why Frei describes himself as skeptical. Frei said he believes that skepticism has been given a bad rap.

"It is critically analyzing everything," he said.

Along with his unique writing style, Frei said he believes that to be a successful columnist today in journalism, you have to do several things, including evoking reader emotions.

Terry Frei with then-President Bill Clinton at the White House in 1997. Clinton's 1969 draft status was a major plot element in Frei's 2002 book, "Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming." Though the material about Clinton in "Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming" wasn't entirely complimentary, the ex-president nonetheless praised Frei's book in his autobiography. The book still is available in hardback, and a paperback edition also was published in 2004.

"If I make someone cry, laugh, think or (get) mad in one column, I've done my job," he said. "It can be one of each or all in the same column."

Aside from writing at newspapers and magazines, Frei, who also has a degree in history, has published two books: "Hogs, Horns and Nixon Coming: Texas vs. Arkansas in Dixie's Last Stand," and "Third Down And A War To Go: The All-American 1942 Wisconsin Badgers."

While both books deal with some element of sports, they also look at the political and social impacts of the times and the effects they had on sports. "Hogs, Horns and Nixon Coming," Frei's first book, details the 1969 national championship game between the Texas Longhorns and the Arkansas Razorbacks, both undefeated, and the political affects the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam War had on the game, the last championship clash of teams with all-white starting lineups.

Former President Bill Clinton, whose draft status and maneuvering was a significant plot element in the book, noted in his autobiography that he listened to the game on short-wave radio in London, where he was attending college. Clinton wrote, "The game and its cultural contexts have been beautifully chronicled by Terry Frei."

Frei wrote an article for The Sporting News on the game in 1994, and six years later was asked whether he could expand the piece into a book.

He said he didn't believe he could publish a whole book on one game, but through his research, he found many "unique coincidences" that allowed him to write about the game and political issues surrounding it.

The game was so huge that President Richard Nixon was on hand to present a presidential national championship plaque. While writing the book, Frei found a black player, Darrell Brown, who actually played for Arkansas' freshman team in 1965 and was shot the night before the historical game. After tracking him down, Frei said he found out Brown became a lawyer who had worked on the defense team for Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker in the "Whitewater" trial. During the trial, Brown had questioned Clinton in testimony videotaped in the White House.

Frei said his second book, "Third Down And A War To Go," is his favorite project. Frei's father, Jerry, played on the 1942 Wisconsin Badger team, and when he died in 2001, Frei said he set out to find more about his father's team. Frei found that the 1942 Badgers were more than just great football players (they finished 8-1-1 and were ranked No. 3 in the nation), they were great human beings who played football knowing they would all be shipped off to World War II at the conclusion of the season.

Frei's father, who went on to be the head coach at the University of Oregon before moving to the NFL, was a P-38 fighter pilot, and two of his star teammates were killed in the battle of Okinawa.

"(The book) personalized him and his generation," Frei said. "I think we've mythologized their generation. It personalized them as typical, yet extraordinary."

Terry Frei, far right, at a book signing and presentation for "Third Down and a War to Go" in Eau Claire, Wis., with three of his father's surviving teammates from the famous 1942 Wisconsin Badgers football team. From left to right, the 1942 Badgers are Don Litchfield, a decorated B-17 bomber pilot in World War II; Dave Donnellan, who earned the Bronze Star as an Army sergeant in the Battle of the Bulge; and John Gallagher, a Marine first lieutenant ticketed to be in the first wave an invasion of Japan when the war ended. "Third Down and a War to Go" still is available in hardback, and the paperback edition is scheduled for a 2007 release.

Although Frei's favorite projects are his books, he said he "enjoys working in the newspaper business." Frei said he gets personal satisfaction from working at newspapers and has especially liked covering the Olympics.

"After the Olympics, I understand the universal warming sports has had."

Even though Frei has had success in sports writing, he said he would take a different path if he could do it over again.

"In a perfect world, I would have been out of it by my early 30s and would have started writing books," he said. "If I could move on to writing books all the time, I would. I just don't like the newspaper business as much as I used to."

Frei said his discontent comes from the politics of journalism. He said the quality of writing has gone down, and since more people than ever want to get into journalism, the quality of journalism as a whole has gone down.

"Because everyone in journalism wants to make a splash, we've lost a lot of our responsibility and passion," he said. "We've lost the desire for great writing."

Woody Paige, a columnist for the Post who appears on ESPN shows "Around the Horn," "Cold Pizza" and "1st and 10," said he has known and worked with Frei for more than 25 years and echoes Frei's sentiments about the new breed of journalists.

"I wish there were more like (Frei) in the business," Paige said in an e-mail. "Unfortunately, I believe the Terry Freis are disappearing, being replaced by a new breed of journalists who are more interested in making names for themselves and being politically correct than getting the job and their lives right. I wish I were as strong and as talented as Terry."

Although Frei has spent more than 30 years in sportswriting, he said he discourages students and journalists from getting into the field. He said that when he started in the business, editors had been writers and could understand the business as a whole. Now, he said he believes journalism and sportswriting have become too political, with too many people wanting control.

"Sports journalism is not the end to the lifelong path," he said, adding that he believes the same can be said for journalism as a whole.

He said journalism students must be realistic about assessing journalism as a skill. "In my opinion, you can't teach someone to write," he said. "Unless you're the cream of the crop, you're going to have a tough time getting a good job. Writing's an aptitude."

Paige said he loves covering events with Frei and respects his work even more now than when they worked together in Denver.

"Terry is one of the most conscientious journalists I've ever known," Paige said. "He cares about his craft, his industry, the people he works with and the people he interviews and writes about. I've always admired Terry personally and respected his work professionally."

Frei continues to write columns for the Post and ESPN.com, does consulting and advising work in the movie industry, and plans to write a screenplay for "Third Down And A War To Go." He said he has started a new book about Denver in the 1970s. Frei and his wife, Helen, live in Denver. tfrei@denverpost.com