Friday left impact on local sports
By Gene Kemmeter
Don Friday, 84, an influential figure in the sporting community in Stevens Point and the rest of the Portage County area, died Saturday evening, Feb. 22, 2020.
Don devoted most of his life to reporting the exploits of teams and players in various sports and activities as a longtime sports editor of the Stevens Point Journal from 1959 until his retirement in 1999, and then as a sports correspondent to the Portage County Gazette.
A bout with rheumatic fever as a child limited his participation in sports but not his interest. He participated in recreational sports because he enjoyed what he was doing. He also made sure that recreational sports got some “ink” on the sports pages.
Reporters come and go in small communities, lured to more financially rewarding positions in larger cities. Don was born and raised in Stevens Point, then left the community for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but returned to his hometown before he graduated because of a vacancy as sports editor at the Journal.
He subsequently turned down offers to leave because he loved the community. A quiet and unassuming man, he knew sports and didn’t shy away from asking tough questions. He usually went to Green Bay Packers’ home games, and his voice could often be heard at press conferences when they were televised or broadcast after the game, asking probing questions, usually better than those asked by other reporters.
He also served as analyst for Bob Daniels on radio broadcasts of games involving Stevens Point teams on radio station WFHR-AM in Wisconsin Rapids.
His sports pages put the emphasis on area high school and college athletics, and he took late-night reports from area coaches to gather information to write about their individual contests. Plenty of local athletes from the years he was sports editor have scrapbooks filled with clippings of their exploits on the diamond, court or field.
Don has left his mark on sports in Portage County in many ways. As a co-founder and member of the Stevens Point Parks Improvement Committee, he worked to improve the baseball diamond at Bukolt Park and the football and track facilities at Goerke Field. He also played a major role in organizing and creating the Sentry Classic Basketball Tournament to raise funds for the projects.
He was a major supporter of Wisconsin American Legion Baseball from 1968 to 2000, serving as an assistant coach and working to secure the 1987 Legion’s World Series Baseball Tournament at Bukolt Park in Stevens Point. He also helped promote Stevens Point’s American Legion Firecracker Baseball Tournament and Bukolt Park as a site for the Legion’s Great Lakes Regional Tournament.
His peers recognized his devotion to sports. He served three times as president of the Associated Press Sports Editor Association and was the first recipient of the Tom Butler Media Award in 1998 from the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
He’s a member of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Athletic Hall of Fame, the Stevens Point High School Athletic Hall of Fame and the Pacelli High School Hall of Fame. He’s also a member of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame as a “Friend of Basketball,” the Central Wisconsin Baseball Hall of Fame and the Wisconsin American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame due to his reporting and support.
After a debilitating stroke suffered during halftime of a University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men’s basketball game in 2000 left him paralyzed on his right side, Friday continued to attend sporting events through the assistance of his friend Jack Porter and various other friends in the community.
They helped Don get to an event and then back home. The television in his room at Point Manor Assisted Living in Whiting was usually tuned to a sporting event, and his eyes were riveted to the action on the screen.
His legacy will live on. “Every day is now Friday at Goerke Field,” said announcer Bill Nuck during the dedication of the Don Friday Press Box at the stadium in Goerke Park.
Don’s brother Jim said Don built a bond with the coaches and players. “He never criticized coaches, players or officials, because he knew they played because they liked the game.”
Dick Bennett, former coach at UWSP and UW-Madison, recalled working with Don: “They simply don’t come any better than Don. He is a coach’s dream because he’s not afraid to support the team he is covering, yet he describes the game properly and well. He just simply understood his role in the entire process. He was just a delight to work with.”
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Don always wore a jacket covering his uniform while on the field, in the dugout, seemingly everywhere, even when the temperature was more than 100 degrees. Today, when the young men he coached in American Legion baseball get together, they still have a question they’d like to have answered. What was the number on his uniform covered by the jacket?
They’ve been unable to find it in any program printed about the team or elsewhere.
Editor’s note: A funeral mass for Don Friday will be held Feb. 29 at 11 a.m. at St. Peter Catholic Church. Visitation will be on Feb. 28, 5-7 p.m., at the Shuda Funeral Chapel in Stevens Point, and from 10-11 a.m. on Saturday at St. Peter’s Catholic Church.