Veteran newspaperman ‘never missed a beat’
Harry Shattuck, who covered more than 3,000 games as the Chronicle’s peerless baseball writer and visited more than 50 countries as its award-winning travel writer, died Thursday at a local hospital.
Shattuck, 75, had been in declining health for about a year, said Joan Shattuck, his wife of 38 years. He suffered multiple organ failures last week during his most recent hospital stay and did not respond to treatment, she said.
Among Shattuck’s honors during his four-decade career at the Chronicle included a place on the Astros Media Wall of Honor at Minute Maid Park for his baseball writing and the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award from the Society of American Travel Writers.
Joan, to whom Shattuck referred as his “co-pilot” in his Chronicle travel stories, said the two often mixed sports and travel during their international adventures.
“When we went to Curacao, we saw the ballpark where (All-Star outfielder) Andruw Jones played,” she said. “He loved sports, and we watched sports in this house, but he said you had to have three degrees to cover sports — a journalism degree, a law degree and a degree in child psychology.
“What he enjoyed about sports was traveling and seeing the world and finding out that people are the same no matter where you go. To be able to do that and experience the world after doing sports for so long is something that he loved dearly.”
Shattuck picked up the writer’s craft at an early age. At age 8, Joan said, hewould compile a daily digest of sports news and sell it to his father for a penny. At Millsaps College, where he earned an undergraduate degree, he studied writing with novelist Eudora Welty.
“He wrote a story about boxing, and she gave it back to him and told him that he was a good writer but that he was a better sports writer,” Joan said.
Shattuck joined the Chronicle in 1970 and was its Astros beat writer from 1972-85 before stints as national baseball writer, assistant sports editor and, from 1993 through 2009, as travel writer. He covered 14 World Series for the newspaper and was president of the Houston chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Of his career as a baseball writer, he said in 2015, “It was the most exhilarating time. I met my wife, who was a pioneering radio reporter, at the Astrodome. I enjoyed being assistant sports editor and working with people who became great writers.
“I enjoyed the travel editor’s job because I was able to go to places I never dreamed I would visit like China, Russia, India and Australia, and my wife was able to go with me.”
Shattuck’s admirers included Tal Smith, the longtime Astros executive, and Nolan Ryan, who attended the 2015 event honoring him at Minute Maid Park with the Astros media award.
“He was so dedicated to the task and never missed a beat,” Smith said. “But he did so while maintaining meaningful relationships that lasted a lifetime.”
Ryan described Shattuck as a “consummate professional in the Houston sports community.”
“Itwas a pleasure towork with Harry during my playing days with the Astros,” he said. “Harry mentored many young writers and handled himself with class, always knowing the Astros system from rookie ball to the 40-man roster. He will truly be missed.”
Among his less heralded accomplishments was helping to coin the nickname “The General” for longtime Chronicle NFL writer John McClain.
“When I came to Houston in 1976, I looked up to Harry as the consummate beat writer,” McClain said. “He was as good as anybody I ever read, and he had a profound influence on me.”
“Oh, the memories and the stories I have from traveling and working with Harry,” former Chronicle columnist Fran Blinebury wrote on Facebook. “Truly one of the kindest, gentlest, giving men I have ever known, not to mention one hellaciously fine writer who was up to any task.”
Shattuck spent the final years of his sports newspaper career working with young writers while also helping cover the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
“He was such a kindman to everyone who knew him,” Joan said. “He always honored people.”
Survivors include his wife, a sister, Marty Fonville, and a brother, John Shattuck, both of Mississippi.
Plans for a memorial service are pending. The family has designated the Houston Food Bank and Feeding America for memorial contributions.