O'Donnell: Hey high schools! An enduring honor for Bob Frisk is long overdue

FOR 50 YEARS - dat's right Jack, 50 years - Bob Frisk was as relentlessly prominent an advocate of the young athlete as any journalist at any newspaper in America.

He retired from The Daily Herald and Paddock Publications in December, 2008.

Along the way, he briefly served as assistant sports editor to Bob Paddock Sr., then sports editor and finally a long stretch run as assistant managing editor/sports with Jim Cook and later Tom Quinlan.

Sure he lauded the grand successes.

But on a week-to-week basis in his classic "Kickin' It Around" columns, it was more about effort, participation and the personal growth of path-seeking student-athletes.

And the sheer joy of the games.

His words inspired.

Local school districts and other amateur athletic groups could not have designed a more sincere and gifted cheerleader for the best interests and imaging of their coaches, students and administrators.

So, about 17 years ago, a bearded acolyte - then on the lam as a daily horse racing columnist at The Sun-Times - had an idea:

Get the field house at Prospect High School named for Frisk.

Why Prospect?

Frisk's alma mater - Arlington High (Class of '54) - had been shuttered.

And Frisk's lone child - now attorney Susan Alesia - was a Prospect graduate.

If the man himself had ever heard of the idea, it would have been dismissed quicker than Nipper the Victrola Dog at a premiere of "Cats."

Along with class, dignity and talent, modesty probably leads on Frisk's personal Mount Rushmore.

Jack Martin - a marvelously eclectic educator who had been principal of both Forest View and Prospect High Schools in District 214 - was enlisted to assist.

"There will be two problems," Martin warned.

"One, the district doesn't like naming things after people who are still alive.

"And two, educators generally prefer to honor their own, regardless of how deserving a person might be."

Frisk remains omittable on both counts.

Still, Martin brokered a meeting with an assistant principal at Prospect.

The racing writer even prepared a three-page leave-behind that essentially wrote itself

Because of Martin's standing, the assistant principal listened and at least feigned interest and comprehension.

And in the end, nothing came of it.

Except for an article that appeared in The Daily Herald about a year or so later.

The assistant principal had formed a committee to select someone to name the field house after.

And on the committee was ... Bob Frisk.

Talk about Machiavellian preemption.

The chances of Frisk sitting in on any meeting where so public an honor for himself was to be discussed were subzero.

So they named the field house after a nice lady named Jean Walker.

She had been a teacher and coach at PHS during the advent of Title IX.

Martin - no stranger to the lexicon of the racetrack - later told his hirsute chum:

"I told you we were in tough."

And to this day, no local high school district - 214, 211, any - that were so forever elevated and enhanced by the writing and other work of Bob Frisk in such singular manner has endeavored to bestow any enduring recognition.

This really is a clarion call to the more vigorous and enlightened decision-makers at those area districts.

By commemorating the work of Bob Frisk, they would be acknowledging and honoring the legacies of their own schools and districts.

The oversight is very, very wrong.

And with the good winds and sharper wisdoms willing, it will one day be corrected.

TERRIFIC HIRE BY WGN-AM (720) with the news that Bob Sirott will be taking over the station's legacied morning franchise beginning Monday, Jan. 6.

Back when he was a teen heartthrob handling afternoons on classic Top 40 WLS-AM (890), Sirott did a regular bit with the great Don Vogel voicing the part of buffet-max Bears coach Abe Gibron.

While the sound of an 8-millimeter movie projector rattled in the background, Vogel's Gibron did a give-and-take with Sirott on "Bears highlights," frequently stopping to ask, "Where's my sand'ich?

"Who took my sandwich?"

THE STANLEY CUP comes to Rosemont in most fan-friendly fashion on Sunday prior to the Chicago Wolves game vs the Texas Stars (3 p.m.; My Chicago 50, NHL Network, Jason Shaver, Billy Gardner).

Doors at Allstate Arena will open an hour earlier at 2 p.m. for photo opportunities.

Wolves GM Wendell Young - a two-time Cup winner as a goalie with the Penguins in 1991 and 1992 - is expected to be in proximity.

No fewer than 45 Wolves have gone on to play for Lord Stanley champs, none higher up the marquee than Jordan Binnington, whose net nimbleness helped fulfill St. Louis's improbable dream last spring.

STREET-BEATIN': If the winds at Solider Field Sunday night are 10 mph or less, Mitch Trubisky will probably account for at least five touchdowns against Patrick Mahomes and KC - just to further gum up the Bears off-season. (NBC; Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, 7:20 p.m.) ...

On the topic of Trubisky and luck, a $372 million Mega Millions solo winner was purchased this week at a grocery store about a mile from where the Bears QB grew up in Mentor, Ohio ...

Some say Michael Jordan's grand NBA "coming out" party was All-Star Weekend 1988 at Chicago Stadium. And now some are saying the same coronation awaits Giannis Antetokounmpo at the United Center in February. (The Greek's development of a reliable three-point shot has pushed his game into regal Aegean air) ...

Speaking of rare air, TNT's Reggie Miller showed new dimension alongside Kevin Harlan during Milwaukee's 111-104 showcase win over LAL Thursday night. Miller is the best network-level NBA analyst going right now ...

Chance the Rapper at halftime of that NBA All-Star Game.? Why not a duet with Luke Combs? ...

Any reasonable retrospective on CLTV - which will be shut down at the end of the month by new Tribune Media owner Nexstar Media - must mention sportscasters Mike Greenberg and Jill Carlson. Greenberg has gone on to scale national heights; Carlson was one of the most vibrantly telegenic reporters of the past quarter century on Chicago TV ...

And scrappy press-box vet Neil Milbert, on the "bent time" aspects of the new millennium for seasoned mills, quipped, "The 21st century is a flyover zone."

• Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com.