The launch of former Northern Advocate sports reporter, Garry Frew's scrap book archives, at the Whangarei Library.
Gary Frew was passionate about sport and those Northlanders who competed locally, nationally and internationally.
Now 146 of his private scrapbooks have been digitised and can be accessed by people around the world via the Whangārei District Libraries website.
Frew - a former Northern Advocate sports editor - had a journalism career that spanned 40 years and after he died suddenly at his Kamo home in 2000, aged 64, the scrapbooks were gifted to Sport Northland.
Yesterday as part of the official launch of the collection at Whangārei District Libraries it was announced a second stage of the project was on the radar with hundreds of pages of the Northern Advocate Friday sports tabloids to also be scanned and loaded on to the site.
At the launch Northland rugby legend Sid Going spoke about "Frewy", who he came to know over the course of his rugby career.
Former All Black Sid Going considered Garry Frew "Frewy" a wonderful person. Photo/ John Stone
"For me Frewy was one of those people that just loved sports. He kept in touch with us as players and never wrote derogatory things, he always looked at the positive," Going said.
"To me Frewy was just a wonderful person. On the court he was outstanding as was the work he did for Northland. He kept people informed of the sportspeople we had here in Northland and he brought Northlanders' achievements to the fore."
What Sid didn't tell those gathered, but wife Colleen remembered, was Frew would deliver Christmas presents to their children for many years.
"People didn't get to see or hear about that side of him," she said.
Friend and fellow table tennis player James Morris said he was privileged to know Frewy, who he said was an icon as a journalist and had a tremendous work ethic.
James Morris at the launch of former Northern Advocate sports editor, Garry Frew's scrapbook archives, at the Whangarei Library. Photo/ John Stone
They had travelled together for table tennis tournaments and while Frew would play and coach during the day he would thump away at his typewriter into the small hours of the morning to make sure the sports news reached editors in time for deadlines in Northland and around the world.
Morris recalled Frew's diet was far from that of an athlete, as it consisted mainly of Honeycomb chocolate and plenty of cola. Frew was one of the best tennis players in the region and also played premier grade club cricket and senior club rugby.
"He played top level sport but his diet was unbelievable," Morris said.
The collection, that covers the period between 1950 and 1976, was a great addition for the library, manager Paula Urlich said. Urlich had worked in the Northern Advocate library with Frew and remembered him always being at his desk, all the time, and being surrounded by "piles of stuff".
From left, Gary Williamson, James Morris and Ken Atchison share a laugh.
To have the scrapbook available for free would be great for any Northland sporting enthusiasts now and in the future, she said.
Paul Cleary, a former Sport Northland employee, worked alongside Colleen Atchison of Sport Northland and Joey Yovich a well as Urlich and Supriya Khambete at the Whangarei Library to get the collection digitised.
Thanks to funding from the Oxford Sports Trust, the scrapbooks were sent to Wellington where New Zealand Micrographics had scanned them.
Cleary said the next phase would be the sports tabloids which covered the period between the 1970s and 1990s.
Steps to find collection: 1. The link https://wdc.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/2567 brings up all the scrapbooks to look through. So for a search ... 2. Click on Collection 3. Enter what you are looking for eg "racing club" - put in speech marks otherwise all clubs will come up or you can search a person's name. 4. Dates - a good idea to search, say, 10 years at a time otherwise it takes a while to load. 5. Search.
