VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

(Photo Credit: Burlington Free Press)

Shelburne/Montgomery

Media-sportswriter

Inducted 2017

Fillion was an award-winning sportswriter who showed his love and passion for Vermont sports during his 45 years in the Green Mountain State covering events from Little League to the Winter Olympics for several newspapers, primarily for the Burlington Free Press. He is the first sportswriter to be inducted into the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame.

Fillion excelled in getting the “big scoops” on media rivals and won numerous honors, including five Vermont Sportswriter of the Year Award from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He was honored by the New England Associated Press, ski organizations and several colleges. 

He was inducted in the Vermont Principals Association and Norwich University halls of fame. He received the Don MacTavish Award for his coverage of stock car racing and Norwich University also honored him with a “Don Fillion Day” as part of its annual media appreciation program. He was honored by the ECAC-SIDA sports information directors with its Monahan-Wallace Media Award in 1994, one of three from Vermont outlets to win the award.

Fillion was a founding member of the Vermont Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association and instrumental in the VSSA’s annual Athlete of the Year banquet. A three-sport standout at Lebanon (N.H.) High School, he played football at Norwich before serving in the U.S. Army. While serving as sports editor of the Burlington Free Press, Fillion was in the forefront of coverage of women’s sports. 

After retiring from the Free Press, Fillion served as a correspondent for the St. Albans Messenger. He died in 2015.