Every year, Friends of South inducts notable South alumni into the Axe Hall of Fame. This year, they honor eight accomplished alumni who The Axe had the opportunity to interview and spotlight. David Frei is the Master of Ceremonies leading the event.

You’ve probably heard his voice before, specifically on your TV at Thanksgiving. David Frei is the co-host of the National Dog Show, alongside John O’Hurley (yes, the one from Seinfeld) and Mary Carillo. But something you may not know about him is that he not only grew up in Eugene, but also graduated from South Eugene High School in 1967. In his senior year of high school, Frei was the sports editor of The Axe and co-captain of the football team. On top of that, Frei was a member of the Madrigals Singers, as well.

Frei was well known around town growing up due to his father being the head coach of the University of Oregon football team for five years and an assistant coach for 12 years prior, while his mom was a nursery school teacher. He spent a lot of time around the football team growing up, or as he put it, “I grew up at Autzen [Stadium].” Frei was the ball boy and worked in the equipment room, where he would take on the dirty towels and shoes of the players. 

He credits his dad as one of the reasons he ended up in the field of journalism. He was always drawn to the sports section of the newspaper, so when offered to write about the local youth baseball league finals, he jumped at the opportunity. 

“I felt like I knew something about the style and how to go about that,” Frei explained. 

This led Frei to working as a sports reporter at the Register-Guard, where he was able to cover sporting events and write news stories, while also working for NFL teams as a PR agent.

“I thought my career path was paved with astroturf, as a sports writer,” Frei stated, “but it turns out my career path was paved with weewee pads, raising puppies, having dogs and going to dog shows.”

Frei never owned a dog growing up, and his first experience owning a dog was as a sophomore in college. His girlfriend at the time, whom he first began dating while at South, wanted to get a dog. 

“I said ‘OK, let’s get a dog,’ and I asked, ‘What kind,’ and she said, ‘How about an Afghan Hound,’ and I had no idea what that was. So we got the dog,” Frei recalled. “Three weeks later, the girl left, and the dog stayed, and it was the best thing that could have happened to all three of us.” 

With help from his Afghan Hound, Frei met his future wife, who was involved with showing Afghan Hounds. Together, they had the top Afghan Hound in the history of the breed, catching the attention of the Westminster Kennel Club (WKC) in New York. WKC asked if Frei would be willing to be the television host for their dog show and he agreed to an audition. The audition went well, and the rest is history.

“I thought that this should be fun for a couple of years,” Frei described having no intention of pursuing the job long term. “That was in 1990, and I was with Westminster until 2016.”

It was in 2002 that NBC approached Frei about hosting the National Dog Show on Thanksgiving Day and of course, Frei said yes.

“We just did our 22nd year,” he said with pride.

Frei is paired up with Seinfeld’s Mr. Peterman, John O’Hurley, in the commentary box, and he said “[h]e’s become a great personal friend…We laugh about how the dog show was the thing that made him famous.”

“I’ve had a lot of great things happen to me because of the dog show,” Frei stated multiple times throughout our interview. Frei started his own nonprofit organization, Angel on a Leash, which he was inspired to do after becoming deeply involved with therapy dogs. Angel on a Leash provides “therapy dog handler teams to visit with anyone that would benefit from the human-canine bond in enhancing human health and quality of life,” according to their website.

Frei and his dogs take frequent visits to the VA Hospital in Seattle where he works with veterans. For three years, Frei was a member of the Army himself, where he worked at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, DC.

“Just being able to see those guys and being able to do those things with them to thank them for what they did is my way of giving something back to them,” Frei said as he described feeling indebted to these veterans because he was never in danger like others were.

Frei would visit with his dog, Grace, where he “would put a treat in [the veteran’s] hand and they would feed Grace the treat with their hands outstretched,” Frei illustrated.

“They pet the dog, or I’d put a brush in their hand and they brush the dog, they were learning how to use this [prosthetic] arm and help take some steps towards recovery.”

Frei once had a physical therapist say to him, that his dog and him were able to do in ten minutes what the therapist has been trying to work on all week, “That just makes me cry,” Frei expressed.

Frei was able to help permit the presence of therapy dogs in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He requested to do a pilot program with his dogs which was an overwhelming success. Because of his hard work, the therapy dog program at Sloan Kettering is now thriving. Frei has also worked at the Ronald McDonald House in New York with his therapy dogs who provided a bright light to children battling cancer and their families. The CEO at the time, William (Bill) Sullivan, once said to Frei, “when you get a kid to smile, you get their parents to smile,” and that touched Frei’s heart.

“The dogs have opened the door,” Frei proclaimed, “and I just happened to be lucky to be the guy who was standing at that doorway when it opened.”

One thing that struck me while interviewing Frei is that he still remembered most of his high school teachers’ names, as well as the names of his friends on the newspaper staff, even 57 years after graduating.

“My teacher and adviser was none other than the legendary Alyce Sheetz, and she really was the person that got me going in the newspaper world,” Frei discussed. “I remember Mrs. Sheetz, she was very funny and she had a very relaxed atmosphere in class. But boy, when she said something, you took notes and you remembered what she said.”

“I loved our principal,” Frei recalled. “Mr. Moffitt was our principal at South and he did some special things watching out for me and that meant a lot in my life.”

Frei also mentioned his English teacher, Mike Rose, as an impactful teacher in his life. Frei had known Rose prior to being his English teacher, because Rose played under his father at the University of Oregon.

“He was just as tough an English teacher as he was a player,” Frei said.

Frei’s life was also impacted by the presence of French teacher, Mrs. Bach.

“One year, there was a breed with a French name, the Petit Basset Griffon Cendéen,” Frei recalled, “and I said, ‘Look at that. Mrs. Bach … would be quite proud,’ and we kind of chuckled about that.”

The very next day he received a Facebook message from Mrs. Bach, thirty years or so on from graduating high school. “It was very fun to hear from Mrs. Bach,” Frei said, “because I wasn’t a really good French student, but she was a good teacher, and I had fun in her class.” Frei was able to stay in contact with Mrs. Bach for a while after receiving the Facebook message.

Frei continues to keep in touch with his high school friends. “I got a lot of friends that I talk to all the time that have Eugene roots,” Frei said. “These are the people I spent all my time growing up with and we still stay in touch.”

Frei has certainly lived a full life. He may not be a household name, but he definitely has a household voice that many would recognize. He attributes all of his success to the dogs and he still holds his hometown roots close to him, even while announcing the National Dog Show. “It all began in Eugene, Oregon and South Eugene High School,” Frei reflected. “I wanted to be a baseball coach and what happened instead was pretty cool.”

Read more about David Frei on the Friends of South website.

Article by Elliott Hunt