Spiro Bernard Zavos (born 1937 in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by m ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

immigrant parents) is a New Zealand

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, philosopher,

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and writer.

Life and career

After gaining a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from the

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Z ...

, Zavos taught history at

St Patrick's College, Silverstream St Patrick's College is a state-integrated Catholic boys' day and boarding secondary school located in Silverstream, Upper Hutt, New Zealand. It was established in 1931 when the original St Patrick's College, Wellington that had been establ ...

, in Wellington. An opening

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, th ...

, he played one

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

match for

in the 1958-59 season. In 1967, Zavos gained a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

(Education) from

The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U. ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. He then moved into journalism, working as a reporter at '' The Dominion'' newspaper in Wellington (now amalgamated into '' The Dominion Post''). In 1976 he shared the New Zealand Feature Writer of the Year award with fellow journalist Warwick Roger, won for a series on New Zealand under

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Rob Muldoon. The following year Zavos moved to Australia. In 1978 he was awarded the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship and spent a year in

Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, writing a collection of autobiographical

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

, which he later published under the title ''Faith of Our Fathers''. In 1979 he became an editorial writer on the '' Sydney Morning Herald'', where he would remain until 2000. At the ''Herald'', he also moved into rugby writing. Zavos has written more than 1000 articles for www.TheRoar.com.au, an Australian sports opinion website founded by his two sons. He has written several books on rugby, and has contributed to

Radio New Zealand Radio New Zealand ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa), commonly known as Radio NZ or simply RNZ, is a New Zealand public-service radio broadcaster and Crown entity that was established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news and cu ...

as a sports analyst.

Bibliography

* ''The Real Muldoon'', Fourth Estate Books, 1978 * ''After the Final Whistle: Mourie's "Grand-Slam" All Blacks, and the Controversies, Personalities and Tactics of Post-war New Zealand Rugby'', 1979 * ''Crusade: Social Credit's Drive for Power'', 1981 * ''Faith of Our Fathers'', 1982 * ''The Gold and the Black: The Rugby Battles for the Bledisloe Cup: New Zealand vs Australia, 1903-94'', 1995 * ''Winters of Revenge: The Bitter Rivalry between the All Blacks and the Springboks'', 1997 * ''Ka Mate! Ka Mate!: New Zealand's Conquest of British Rugby'', 1998 * ''The Golden Wallabies: The Story of Australia's Rugby World Champions'', 2000 * ''Two Mighty Tribes: The Story of the All Blacks vs the Wallabies'' 2003 (with

Gordon Bray Gordon Timothy Bray AM (born 23 June 1949) is an Australian sports commentator and sports journalist. He is colloquially known as "The Voice of Rugby". Early life Brought up in the Sydney suburb of Canada Bay and educated at Homebush Boys High ...

) * ''Watching the Rugby World Cup'', 2007 * ''How to Watch the Rugby World Cup 2011'', 2011 * ''How to Watch a Game of Rugby'', 2012

References

External links

Spiro Zavos articles at The Roar

Author page at Awa Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zavos, Spiro 1937 births Australian people of Greek descent New Zealand people of Greek descent Living people New Zealand cricketers New Zealand journalists Australian sportswriters Catholic University of America alumni Victoria University of Wellington alumni Wellington cricketers New Zealand sportswriters The Sydney Morning Herald people