Sports writer dies suddenly
May 3, 2004
SPORTS writer Peter Frilingos died suddenly in Sydney tonight after suffering a heart attack at work.
Mr Frilingos, 59, was the chief rugby league writer for The Daily Telegraph.
He was also part of 2GB's Continuous Call team and a regular on Foxtel's Main Game.
News Limited chief executive officer John Hartigan said Mr Frilingos was a legend, who had this week celebrated 40 years as a league writer.
"He was one of the greatest sports writers this country has produced, a master writer of rugby league .... legend is a word that is often overused but that is what he was," Mr Hartigan said in a statement tonight.
"Rugby league was his passion but his great love was his wife and family. Our thoughts are with them." The Daily Telegraph editor Campbell Reid also paid tribute to Mr Frilingos.
"More than any other person, Peter was the heart and soul of The Daily Telegraph and of rugby league. And more than any other person, we considered him bulletproof," Mr Reid said.
"In the last couple of days, we had celebrated with Peter an unbelievable career as this city's leading rugby league writer, a job he performed with unsurpassed passion and professionalism. He said to me last week that 'The day I don't want to watch a football game is the day I stop' - but that day had not arrived yet."
Mr Frilingos - known affectionately as Chippy because of his Greek background - started on The Daily Mirror as a copyboy in February 1962.
He wrote his first rugby league article in 1964.
He became chief rugby league writer at The Daily Mirror and when it merged with The Daily Telegraph in the early 1990s, he continued in that role with the merged newspaper.
He then became the chief rugby league writer with The Daily Telegraph.
