Terry Frei biography

Twitter: @TFOlympicAffair

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Terry Frei is the author of the new release Olympic Affair: Hitler's Siren and America's Hero. It is his sixth book. A journalist at The Denver Post, he also has written three screenplays, done consulting work in the film industry, and taken voluminous mental notes.

Frei was raised in Eugene, Oregon, where his father, Jerry, was a fixture on the University of Oregon football staff and the Ducks' head coach for five seasons. When Jerry Frei moved to the NFL as the Denver Broncos' offensive line coach, beginning what would turn out to be a 30-year stay in pro football as a coach, scout and administrator, Terry moved to Colorado at age 17. He graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder.

He's in his second stint at the Post and previously was sports columnist at the Oregonian in Portland before spending two enjoyable years at The Sporting News, where his cover stories included pieces on Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, Richard Dent, Charles Haley, Thurman Thomas, and Shaquille O'Neal. He also was an ESPN.com hockey columnist on a freelance basis for eight years.

Frei's non-fiction books are Playing Piano in a Brothel (2010), '77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age (2008), Third Down and a War to Go (2007), and Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming (2002). The Witch's Season (2009) is a roman a clef work based on his observations and experiences as the son of a college football coach in a tumultuous time on one of the nation's cauldron campuses.

Terry's next book, a return to sports history and non-fiction, will be March 1939: Before the Madness, again from Taylor Trade. He also periodically is working on a young adult novel, projected to be the first book in a series, and also is helping Patrick Ireland, survivor of gruesome wounds in the Columbine High tragedy, with his memoirs. That book tentatively is titled Columbine's Boy in the Window.

Frei is a frequent event speaker, including at veterans-oriented functions. He has delivered the John Paul Hammerschmidt Lecture in honor of the World War II pilot and longtime Congressman; spoken at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and even at Lambeau Field; and was a keynote speaker at the World War II Glider Conference in 2010, when he appeared with many surviving heroes, including Lt. Col. Jim Megellas, the most-decorated officer in the history of the 82nd Airborne.

Terry and his wife, Helen, live in Denver.

Terry has four siblings: David Frei of New York, the Westminster Kennel Club's director of communications, long-time WKC Dog Show and National Dog Show television broadcaster and a fellow author; Judy Kaplan of Centennial, Colorado, a Spanish and English-as-a-second-language teacher and community volunteer; Susan Frei Earley of Tulsa, a noted former ballerina with the Colorado Ballet and other companies, and now a company executive with the renowned Tulsa Ballet, which performs around the world; and Nancy McCormick of the Chicago law firm Barlit, Beck, Herman, Palenchar and Scott.