A Friend on the Mend
Steve Shutt, Wake’s director of media relations, got an email this week from his boss Ron Wellman.
“He said that if I go to Maryland for the football game I won’t have a job when I get back,’’ Shutt said with a chuckle.
The fact Wellman even felt compelled to issue such a draconian ultimatum tells you all you’ll ever need to know about Shutt and his work ethic. And I imagine it’s at least partly a bluff on Wellman’s part, knowing how indispensable Shutt has been to Wake’s athletics since arriving before the 2007 season from Wofford. Maybe Steve’s wife, Doris, put Wellman up to it. I wouldn’t be surprised.
Shutt felt bad enough Saturday night (he picked an off week in football, you might note) that he admitted himself in the hospital. Arterial blockage was removed from his heart on Tuesday and he was released Wednesday. Early in the week, before the procedure, I got wind that Shutt was still bound and determined to make it to Maryland for Saturday’s football game. I just got off the phone with him, and he, thankfully, knows there will always be another football game. He also knows he has a strong, efficient staff fully capable of holding down the fort until he returns.
It was great talking with him. He’s a good friend.
Many times I’ve mentioned how I have the best beat in college sports. A big reason for that is the three directors of media relations I’ve worked with since taking over the beat in 1992. It’s an interesting relationship, the beat guy and main liaison to the beat he covers. We each have our own agendas, and we both are looking after the interests of those for whom we work. I’ve seen the two sides lock horns many times in my many years of covering sports, and I’ve seen how toxic the animosity can become. The sad thing is, nobody wins.
Thankfully, John Justus, Dean Buchan and Shutt—the three with whom I’ve worked—have all been smart enough and good enough people to know it doesn’t have to be that way. All three have taken care of me in every instance they were able to, and when they weren’t able to I tried to understand. I won’t say there haven’t been some infamous, and to be truthful, regrettable blow-ups on my part over the years. I can be combustible, though I’ve worked hard at reining in my temper. But in every instance, we got past the rancor in a flash and by the next day were back to leaning on each other like two professionals, and friends, should.
A quick aside to explain how good Shutt is:
Josh Harris, Wake’s redshirt freshman running back, has a speech impediment. It’s mild, and it usually only rears up when he’s around those he doesn’t know well. But I was tremendously impressed to learn that he doesn’t seem fazed by it in the least. I mentioned all of this in a piece I’m writing on Harris that will run in Friday’s Journal. He’s a confident young man, and as he proved by gouging the Virginia Tech defense for 241 yards rushing, he has every reason to be.
But Shutt, being the pro he is, remembered from his days as Associate Commissioner for Public Affairs for the Southern Conference an acquaintance who, along the way, had worked with Adrian Peterson. And Shutt remembered that Peterson has dealt with a speech impediment. So Steve called the person up to ask for tips on how to interview an athlete with a stutter. A few days later we talked about them, and I knew better how to proceed. I didn’t think it would be a problem, and it turned out not to be, but that was a case of Shutt making the extra effort to take care of as many people as he could, in the best manner he could.
Wake is lucky to have Steve Shutt doing what he does. So am I.