Tom Shatel has a face on the Omaha Press Club (OPC) floor more than 20 stories above the city where the media movers and shakers in Nebraska are toasted.
By Dennis Dodd
(Dodd is Tom Shatel's fellow Mizzou Grad who just finished a three-decade stint as a writer for CBS Sports)
What do you say to someone who is basically responsible for your career?
“Thanks”, for starters. Buy him a beer? I’ve done that plenty of times for my buddy Tom Shatel. Vacations? Too many together to remember.
Calling ours a Lennon/McCartney relationship might be too pretentious. We didn’t write hits but we took pleasure in writing prolifically. Tom just did it better. Way better. Along the way we shared interests, apartments, musical tastes and a 12-pack or two.
But enough about us.
This is about a defining moment in a glorious career. Shatel, the veteran columnist of the Omaha World-Herald, is the 2026 recipient of the Bert McGrane Award. He will be honored on Jan. 16 at the FWAA Past Presidents Dinner in Miami, Fla., and once again--five days later-- at the Outland Trophy Presention Dinner back home in Omaha. The award signifies entry into the Football Writers Association Hall of Fame and his name will be in the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.
The FWAA , along with Nebraska basketball is overdue. Tom is nearing 50 years as a journalist going back to when we met at the University of Missouri in the late 1970s. He has covered the Masters, British Open, NFL, Big Eight, Big 12, Big Ten, bowl games, national championships and Final Fours. They couldn’t throw out the first pitch at the College World Series without Tom being there to chronicle it.
For the last 34 years, he has been the sports voice of Omaha and, really, the entire state of Nebraska and beyond. Tom has won many state-wide, FWAA and USBWA writing awards. He has been President of both organizations (FWAA in 2000 and USBWA in 2007). He has also been President of the Omaha Press Club and is in the OPC Journalism Hall of Fame.
Tom is a master storyteller at a time when the theater of the mind is being demolished cell phone by cell phone. Tom has written the rise, fall and (hopefully) rise again of Nebraska football — from three national championships in four years to migration to the Big Ten to Matt Ruhle. From Scott Frost (as a player) to Scott Frost (as a coach).
Like any metro sports columnist he has been cussed and discussed. But Tom was never not respected. You had to read him. Generations of Nebraskans now have had their opinion shaped — and sports IQ elevated — by a guy who grew up a Dodgers fan.
But at his core Tom’s is a Midwestern sensibility shaped by loving parents. Sue Shatel could light up a room. When Tom brought his sportswriter friends over, they were her friends too. When dad Art — a long-time teacher in Kansas City — retired he did what any right-thinking senior would do. He bought season tickets to multiple local programs, frequently traveling hundreds of miles to watch games while keeping a journal of his experiences.
Tom’s own family is all blond and brilliant. There’s no question their parents’ background in media — wife Jennifer worked for a local TV station — played a part in Sarah, Kate and Anna thriving.
By this time in his glorious career it wouldn’t be wrong to suggest Tom is the metaphoric mayor of Omaha. Heck, he’s been through seven of the city’s real honchos since coming to the Big O in 1991. That’s staying power. That’s talent.
In Omaha, Tom is a man of the people. A sports columnist for the ages.
He’s a big deal. A real big deal. He is among the handful of sports page columnists who have defined a city, a state and a region. Think of Jim Murray, Bob Ryan, Blackie Sherrod, Furman Bisher.
Consider the history of Nebraska football cannot be written without Tom, because he has written a substantial portion of Big Red history with grace and skill.
As mentioned, his guidance and friendship have shaped my career. Tom was the cool guy back at Mizzou. At least he was to me. At the Columbia Missourian sports desk he was the force who seemed to have it all — frat life, good looks, personality, writing chops. Reading him, I was both impressed and was jealous in a why-didn’t-I-think-of-that kind of way.
I’ll never forget his lede for the 1979 Missouri-Texas game. Mizzou came into that game ranked fifth, tied for its highest ranking in almost two decades.
The campus was jacked. So were the fans. That day, though, the Tigers were a no-show, losing 21-0. Tom summed it up in his gamer for the Missourian.
“?”
It was the question every fan was asking summarized in a punctuation mark. What happened? Clear, concise. Perfect.
Even better, while grinding through the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism we became friends. For life.
I was between engagements in 1981 when Tom suggested to his editor at the Kansas City Star that he hire me. Let’s just say it worked out. Thanks to Tom I found my groove, my passion, my career! Thanks, bud.
We have completed each other’s sentences ever since — whether it be lines from Beatles’ movies or an Electric Light Orchestra chorus. I still wish each Saturday night could end with us falling off our chairs laughing at SCTV. (Google it, kids.)
All of it is a tribute to Tom and that rare ability to read a room — whether it be newsroom, locker room or back room at The Pub (the watering hole across the street from the Star. Don’t ask.). In over three decades he has become the voice of Nebraska athletics without having to say a word.
I couldn’t be him. Still, there was no shame in wanting to be like him.
Tom Shatel is, was and will always be my idol and the brother I never had. He inspired me as a person, a writer, a father and also as a philosopher.
A lot of it on the deck of Lahaina Beach House in San Diego where we ended up for summer for 27 straight years. It was during those suds-infused sessions that we solved all the sporting world’s problems. And paid for it the next day with a visit from Señor Hangover.
Lennon/McCartney with foam.
Those days may have faded. Our friendship endures. Congratulations, pal. The McGrane suits you.
-30-