Don Pilling

Bell Memorial Inducted 1997

Don Pilling carried his love for sports into the workplace as a sports writer and television and broadcast journalist in Southern Alberta. "Few southern Albertans promoted sports to the degree Don Pilling did for nearly four decades," states Reno Lizzi. Don Pilling began as a cub reporter covering minor sports at age fourteen. Editor Harold Long of the Lethbridge Herald hired him. He took a break from journalism to complete his education and to work as an accountant. However, the lure of sports took him back to the Herald where he began his career in earnest as a sports reporter. In 1948, he became the Sports Editor and ten years later, he was named the Managing Editor. In 1961, he joined CHEC Radio as head of the news and sports. He returned to the Lethbridge Herald in 1963 where he remained until his retirement in 1979.

Don Pilling is a Charter member of the Lethbridge Sports Hall of Fame and was inducted as a member in 1989. He is the founder of both the Lethbridge Kinsmen Sportsmen's Dinner and the Lethbridge Little League Baseball Association. Fellow Bell Memorial Award Recipient, Garry Allison, states that “Henry Viney and Don Pilling were the leaders (in sports coverage), and they set the standards for those of us who followed like Al McCann, Ernie Afaganis, and myself. Don Pilling’s philosophy in coverage was that whatever the event, no matter how small, it was of the greatest importance to the people taking part”.

After Induction