TOM SHATEL, Sports Columnist, Omaha World Herald

Watch the Media with John Shrader

TOM SHATEL was hired on September 1, 1991 as the sports columnist of the Omaha World Herald. He has been there since. In this conversation he talks about what he does. Also, Scott Frost, Tom Osborne, Bo Pelini and the importance of facing the sources when you write something critical of them. He talks about what makes him unique, his enjoyment of being at games, with coaches and players, and his lifelong stuttering and how he came to terms with it in the last 20 years.

SHOW NOTES

1:00 Describe what a columnist does [hint: face of the sports section]

5:50 When did you find your ‘voice’? [reference to Jay Novacek AND Bill Plaschke]

10:30 How do fans respond when they disagree with you?

12:30 Lawrence Phillips and Tom Osborne and what did you hear from the coach?

14:00 You better show up if you’re going to be critical [and the story of where Tom met Osborne]

18:50 Could you have imagined in 1991 you would still be here 32 years later? [talks about his job interview and the scene he found in Omaha]

24:00 The good Nebraska karma was found there when in college at Missouri [anecdote about Larry Porter sidebar from NU / Mizzou game in 1978]

29:20 The value of seeing practice and having better access to coaches and players

32:50 Provides authority in your reporting and writing

34:30 Getting special access to the coaches and players [and into an anecdote about Pelini]

37:20 Tom talks about dealing with stuttering his entire life, and how he publicly came to terms with it

41:45 Scott Frost – when did you first have an inkling it might now work out?

46:40 When did you start questioning Frost and his work here?

49:30 Shrader asks about reporting after Frost firing that they knew things were not right, but didn’t report during his tenure here [no implication that Shatel did that]

52:40 We talk about Frost’s enjoyment of the job, and Shatel says he thinks maybe Frost ‘couldn’t turn it down’

55:00 Matt Davison’s role in the Frost era and his in Frost’s hiring [Shrader offers opinion]

59:00 How has the job changed in the 32 years?