Remembrances: Keeping the Legacy of Bob Frisk Alive
Legendary Daily Herald Prep Columnist Passed Away in 2020
Five years without emails and text messages on about how things are going and what’s happening on the high school sports scene.
It is tough to believe it has been that long since Bob Frisk passed away on May 16, 2020.
Nobody was better using a typewriter and ultimately a computer to convey the essence of high school sports. The joy, the pain, the drama, the excitement and the values that were on display on a daily and nightly basis at a school near you.
Bob’s role in the growth of a weekly paper into the Daily Herald can’t be understated. Coaches and athletic directors at schools on the outside looked in at a Mid-Suburban League and wanted coverage like that for their athletes.
High school sports was a collegial community of friends for Bob. Current and retired coaches. Athletes he covered. Officials. Fans. Even some of the parents. The best part for Bob when he retired in late 2008 is he no longer had to worry about unhappy letter-writers, callers and e-mailers. But retirement didn’t diminish his passion for high school sports.
Bob didn’t necessarily like parents thanking him for what he and the paper did in chronicling the athletic exploits of their sons and daughters.
But what he did for so many in the high school sports scene should never be forgotten.
With that in mind, here’s my story from the Daily Herald on the final Friday of Bob Frisk’s remarkable 50-year career covering high school sports.
An Amazing Legacy Worth Celebrating
For more than a half-century, Bob Frisk viewed the proverbial glass of high school sports as more than just half full.
He saw it overflowing with excitement, drama, incredible feats and wonderful stories he wanted to bring to life from the time he was a high school sophomore looking to break in any way he could with his hometown newspaper.
A lot has changed since those simpler days of the 1950s. Bob’s beloved Arlington High School closed its doors in 1984.
The weekly paper that covered two high school and boys sports when he started - Palatine and Arlington - exploded into the third-largest daily paper in Illinois which now covers the achievements of girls and boys at nearly 80 schools.
Typewriters gave way to fancier and glitzier computer systems. With the internet you no longer have to wait for the paper to plop on your driveway in the morning to find out what’s happening.
Yet, through it all, some things have simply remained the same with Bob the last 50 years.
“In all my conversations with him,” said longtime friend and Elk Grove softball coach Ken Grams, “I’ve never heard him say that it might be interesting to cover a college game or a pro game. His commitment to high school sports is remarkable.”
Sure, he would follow the exploits of former local stars such as Paul Splittorff, Dave Corzine, Tom Zbikowski and Candace Parker as they graduated to the big time.
But he’d rather do it from afar. The real fun is roaming a football sideline on Friday nights, making the annual visit to the Palatine Relays, joining the masses in a packed gym for a big postseason basketball game or plopping down on a lawn chair at a softball or baseball field on a beautiful spring day.
It has been about a commitment to excellence on and off the fields, courts, pools and tracks. A commitment to the positive influence the sports pages can have in the lives of teenage kids.
“He’s had a huge impact,” said Montini football coach Chris Andriano, who was on the Herald’s first All-Area football team at Palatine in 1969. “The coverage has gotten so much better over the years because of guys like Bob.”
A 50-year commitment to coverage that will remain influential after Bob’s final column appears in these pages today. But there is no question, for the readers who grew up with him and the paper, there will be a void that will be difficult to fill in future Fridays.
“I’m going to miss him,” said Fred Lussow, who was covered by Bob as a star athlete at Prospect nearly 50 years ago and as a successful football coach at Forest View and Rolling Meadows.
“He will be missed,” said Barrington girls basketball coach and former Elk Grove athlete Babbi Barreiro. “I think high school sports will miss his presence.”
A presence that never missed these weren’t paid professionals or college scholarship athletes.
Nicely Done
After being mentioned in one of Bob’s columns a few months ago, Arlington grad Fritz Peterson e-mailed and said, “you’re the nicest writer I’ve ever known.”
Of course, that’s understandable since Peterson spent the bulk of an 11-year major-league baseball career where he won 133 games pitching for the New York Yankees.
Few who have known Bob through the years would disagree with Peterson.
“He’s living proof that dispels the old adage that nice guys finish last,” said former Elk Grove softball and Buffalo Grove boys basketball coach Doug Millstone. “You can’t finish higher in life than he has.”
Especially since Bob’s objective was never to make a kid who made a mistake feel even lower than he already did.
“The greatest attribute he’s always had is he’s always been positive,” said Lussow, whose 1985 Forest View football team finished second in the state. “Never once that I’ve known of was he negative in any respect. Even when there was a bad story to write he could pull out the good about kids and the good about coaches.
“As an athlete and coach you wanted to read what he had to say because you weren’t going to walk away with bad feelings. What I’ve noticed still is here’s a guy you can count on to make something positive out of something that could be a disaster.”
There’s no question Bob has witnessed more than his share of those through the years. Forgettable moments that quickly faded but never left him jaded.
“There’s no cynicism,” said Grams, who graduated from Arlington four years after Bob did in 1958. “He’s never holier than thou and he’s never critical of anything. He’s been so steady and constant.”
That approach helped him make a name for himself without trying to be constantly sensational.
When an area team did well he shared in that joy without rampant homerism. After all, his annual boys basketball state tournament picks didn’t have Schaumburg toppling Eddy Curry and Thornwood for the 2001 Class AA state title.
But he was also probably never happier to be wrong.
“He did a good job of showing excitement for all of the schools,” Lussow said. “He went out of his way to distribute the wealth of journalism to everybody.”
Especially when the high school landscape underwent dramatic changes in the early 1970s.
Girls Get Their Due
When Bob started girls sports were relegated to “play days” and back gyms far from the public consciousness.
The advent of Title IX in 1972 was a big step in bringing the girls to the forefront. But there was still a long road toward acceptance.
Now stories about Candace Parker and others aren’t just on the high school pages but the front pages.
“He had a big impact in this area on that,” said former Prospect basketball coach and girls sports pioneer Jean Walker. “He learned about girls sports early on and got on the bandwagon as far as equality in the press.
“He was a big part of that. Throughout the years he worked hard to make sure girls got their recognition as boys did.”
Those who struggled and fought difficult battles such as Walker, former Fremd basketball coach Carol Plodzien and former Wheeling softball coach Pat Ritchie have tremendous respect for Bob’s influence.
“People who were there from the beginning know what the process was and how much Bob supported it,” Walker said.
“I don’t remember Bob ever pooh-poohing it or saying it’s just girls,” Grams said.
“He was a proponent of girls sports,” said Barreiro, whose mom and Bob’s late wife Nancy worked together at the library in Elk Grove. “Not only girls sports, but just high school sports in general.”
Particularly the lessons and values Bob believed they could provide.
Helping the Cause
There is one part of Bob’s life he views with self-deprecation. That was his career as a track athlete for legendary coach Russ Attis at Arlington.
“He always downgrades himself,” Lussow said with a laugh and a hint at a bit of sandbagging. “But being around some of those early guys and early coaches … he’s a man of values and that’s pretty important.”
Values he has never been afraid to share through the years. Of how athletes, coaches, parents and even sportswriters should conduct themselves before, during and after competition.
“He seems to get it and doesn’t give it short shrift,” said Barreiro, who laughed about always calling him Mr. Frisk. “He doesn’t lose sight of teaching kids how to be coachable and the lessons as coaches we’re trying to teach those kids.”
Which isn’t easy in an era where some view high school sports as a vehicle to bigger personal gains even if it’s at the expense of everyone else.
“High school athletics and what that competition means, because of Bob’s influence and leadership, he’s been able to keep it in perspective so well,” Grams said. “I think it’s Bob’s personality.”
Passion Never Wavers
How many people stay in the same job for 50 years? Much less at the same company?
Not too many. Only those with a tremendous passion and dedication for their profession.
Bob once had an opportunity to join the staff of the IHSA. He passed, but did help the state’s organization in his own way by starting the “Pack the Place” initiative, where teams throughout the state have special nights where they try to fill their gyms for boys and girls basketball games.
Instead, Bob stayed with his continuing efforts to promote high school sports through the Daily Herald. Whether it was in the newspaper or at the all-area recognition banquets for football and basketball.
“One of the reasons the paper has been so popular is the coverage has been outstanding,” Lussow said.
“I couldn’t wait to get the paper and see the paper,” Andriano recalled of his all-area selection 39 years ago. “‘Was I really on the all-area team?’ That was a special time back then at that moment.”
Andriano was just one of many touched by Bob’s commitment that spanned generations of families.
Watching Andy Pancratz star on the basketball court at Hersey in the early 1970s and then seeing his kids Mark, Zach, Jake and Drewann do the same at Schaumburg.
Watching Larry Monroe dominate hitters at Forest View and seeing his son Grant do the same for Schaumburg.
Watching Dan Dierking run Wheaton Warrenville South to a state football title a couple of years ago the same way his dad Scott did for West Chicago in 1974 on the way to an NFL career.
In a typical gesture, Bob handed an autograph he received as a kid of football legend and Wheaton product Red Grange to Dan Dierking. Not just to look at but to keep.
And Bob will continue to keep a close eye on the high school sports scene even if his face will grace these pages only sporadically in the future.
“It’s in his blood,” Lussow said.
“I really do think he understands it and seemed to understand it for a lifetime,” Barreiro said. “And the lens he views it through never seems to change. That’s what makes him so special.”
Thanks for sharing again. We should celebrate his birthday in June with his staff.
Thanks for sharing this again, Marty. Bob, and all of you on the preps beat at the Herald, were first-class across the board.