JB Phillips (right) with former Whanganui WRFU president Tommy Kilgarriff. Photo / Steve Caudwell
John Brian (JB) Phillips is being celebrated for his dedication to Whanganui and its sportspeople.
The award-winning journalist and historian died on July 29 aged 86.
Son Jeff Phillips, the chairman of Whanganui Rugby, said he did not inherit his father’s writing ability but JB passed on “the appreciation of people’s commitment and passion for sport”.
Growing up, he rarely missed a rugby game with his father.
“That could be Whanganui playing the Springboks or Whanganui playing the Australians. You name it and we were there,” Phillips said.
“I would probably be running around causing havoc with him telling me to be quiet while he wrote down scores.
“It’s just in my DNA - the passion for sport and rugby has passed from father to son.”
Phillips said JB’s rugby playing career did not progress past the St Augustine’s (now Cullinane College) second XV.
“Dad did lace up the boots and ran around to no great heights, but it was enough to give him a lick.
“In his words, he was a winger who kept tripping over his own feet.”
JB was made a life member of the Whanganui Rugby Union in 2017.
His roles at the union included unofficial statistician, Spriggens Park ground announcer, club rugby administrator (including two terms as acting chief executive), secretary for the council of clubs, delegate to NZ Rugby Union annual general meetings, judicial committee member, media representative at management committee meetings, and media PR officer.
Former Whanganui Chronicle editor John Maslin said JB had far more playing success with table tennis.
“He never played rugby at a high level but that didn’t matter.
“Sport was just a real passion for him. He loved it, he really loved it.”
JB retired from the Whanganui Chronicle in 1998 after 42 years in journalism.
The following year he was the first provincial journalist to receive the Sport New Zealand Lifetime Contribution to Sport through Journalism Award.
Maslin began working at the paper in 1969 - when JB was sports editor at the Wanganui Herald.
“When the papers amalgamated - the Chronicle bought the Herald out - JB was among the staff members who came over,” he said.
“He stayed in that role until he retired.
“Anybody who worked in journalism in Whanganui and sports journalism around the country knew JB. It was just the longevity of the guy.”
Maslin said JB always had an eye for statistics and very rarely, if ever, made a mistake.
“The number of exercise books he filled with details - every weekend, summer or winter - was just mind-boggling.
“It could be tries scored, runs scored, wickets taken, drop goals, you name it. Colossal information.”
JB was acting WRFU chief executive when current chief executive Bridget Belsham came on board in 2015.
Belsham said he could not have been more welcoming.
“I actually started on his birthday - March 2,” she said.
“He was an honest, genuine man and very accepting of me in that role - I was the first female and the youngest person to have it.”
The discussion around adding an “H” to the “Wanganui” Rugby name caused an unusual situation, she said.
“That was quite an interesting AGM to be at - the chair [Jeff Phillips] advocating for the H and a life member, his dad, pushing against it.
“It was hilarious. JB didn’t get his way on that but he accepted it for what it was.”
Belsham said Jeff made sure the Whanganui Rugby jersey on his father’s coffin did not have an H.
Jeff Phillips said JB’s retirement did not signal the end of his record-keeping.
His father had gone back as far as 1888 to transcribe records of every Whanganui senior representative player.
“Dad died on the Monday and he rang me on the Saturday wanting to know what happened in the Whanganui-Hawke’s Bay [Ranfurly] shield challenge.
“He laughed when he heard the score [Hawke’s Bay won 80-5].
“Right up until the end, he was still keeping his records up to date.”
He said JB always tried to help others when called upon, regardless of who they were.
“It didn’t matter who rang him or wanted something, he would bend over backwards to help them and give them whatever they needed.
“A lot of people wouldn’t do that, they just wouldn’t have the time.”
Whanganui Sports Hall of Fame panel chairman Keith Smith said he saw JB as a mentor.
After leaving the police, Smith worked as circulation manager at the Chronicle and eventually wrote a sports column.
“When I was at the council as a sport and recreation adviser, the Sports Hall of Fame was being set up,” he said.
“We were looking at possible panel members - it was ‘JB and who else?’. He had to be there, no question.”
Belsham said she visited JB a few days before he died and shortly after the death of former WRFU president Tommy Kilgarriff.
“He didn’t have the mobility he would have wanted but he was still so switched on.
“There was talk about the time he spent with Tommy and the odd drink at the Grand [Hotel].
“They will be causing trouble upstairs no doubt, having a few beers and watching over us.”
Maslin said JB was a face everybody recognised, everywhere.
“There wouldn’t be a watering hole in the city and district that he didn’t go to at some stage.
“The information he would pick up - little news bits - that he brought back to the office would often turn into something really great.”
JB’s was the first funeral he had been to with an old typewriter, a Wanganui rugby jersey and a can of Lion Brown sitting on the coffin, Maslin said.
“That’s JB all in one - the complete package.”
Phillips is survived by wife Yvonne (Poppy), children Antony, Jeffrey, Adrian, Ramon and Vanessa, and eight grandchildren.
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.