“Everyone thought we were crazy for doing it—everyone except us. But for 15 and a half glorious hours, I and ten other University of Idaho students took turns shaking, cursing, and mastering a single pinball machine,” wrote Don Shelton in his May 1974 story for the Argonaut “After 453 Games, Pinball Wizards Survive Marathon.”
From the beginning of Don Shelton’s journalism career, which started as the sports editor for the Argonaut in 1974, Shelton has sought out unique stories. From undertaking a pinball marathon to challenging the best foosball players at UI, Shelton approached the sports section in engaging and creative ways.
Shelton gravitated to the sports section because he had an interest in both sports and writing. From Fruitland, Idaho, Shelton’s first opportunity to approach journalism was with the Argonaut.
After graduating from UI, Shelton went on to have a prolific career in journalism. He worked for the sports section of various news presses and ultimately ended up at The Seattle Times, where he worked for 32 years.
“I was really lucky throughout my career,” Shelton said. He described how his first internship jobs at the Idahonian and the Lewiston Tribune happened because people he knew told him to apply. “I think there were people more talented than me, and definitely smarter than me, but I worked really hard and got lucky.”
Shelton remembers the moment he knew for sure he wanted to pursue journalism. After covering a Washington State University basketball game for the Lewiston Tribune, Shelton sent in his work via a telecopier (an early fax machine). The next morning, in his fraternity house library, Shelton got to see his work on the front page of the sports section.
“I remember feeling so proud,” Shelton said. “This may be dramatic, but I remember a beam of light came through the stained-glass windows and angels sang.”
Shelton explained that he was happy to work in the sports section for his whole career.
“I think the sports section has the best of everything. Some of the best writers come out of sports because they have to make things interesting and they have to come up with all these creative ways of covering it,” Shelton said. “The sports section has all the elements of other sections: opinion, great feature writing, great photography, business stories about people signing contracts and being hired or fired. They even have crime stories where athletes get in trouble.”
As the sports editor for The Seattle Times, Shelton recognized the need to go digital as technology continued to improve. He prepared his sports staff to meet the digital demands, which led to the publisher promoting him to the executive editor of The Seattle Times.
“I was asked by the publisher to make it a digital newsroom, so that’s what I did for the three years I was executive editor,” Shelton said. “I don’t think it was fun. It wasn’t fun like sports was. I just tried to be a leader, tried to inspire people. That’s been my whole career, trying to get people excited about journalism.”
Shelton continues his goal to get people excited about journalism by teaching feature classes at UI.
After attending his Phi Gamma Delta pledge class reunion in 2006, Shelton reconnected with UI. He became his fraternity’s advisor and reunited with Professor Kenton Bird, who brought Shelton in to be a guest speaker in his lectures.
Now Shelton teaches a few classes of his own every semester, usually a reporting class and a class to prepare journalism students for media careers.
“To be able to come back to your alma mater and teach is just the best,” Shelton said. “I see all these students, I see me in all of them in different ways.”
Shelton tries to keep his students engaged with the class by teaching in an untraditional way. He runs his reporting class like a newsroom so students can gain practical skills. One of Shelton’s class traditions is to dress up as whatever the top student wishes.
Shelton has dressed up as a 1970s reporter, Napoleon Dynamite, and Alice Cooper, to name a few. President Scott Green highlighted Shelton’s Alice Cooper when Shelton was chosen to speak at the 2022 Commencement.
Shelton said he was honored to be chosen to speak at commencement. He rewrote and practiced his speech until he felt it was as perfect as it could be.
Shelton also has a tradition of giving out stuffed animals to the students who write the best stories.
Shelton explained that the stuffed animal tradition started when he covered a high school women’s soccer match in Bothell, Washington. After a game that did not have much content to write about, Shelton noticed the winning team pulling stuffed animals out from under their team bench.
Shelton learned that after the soccer team had lost a game early in the season, one girl brought her lucky stuffed animal to the next match. Since then, the team had not lost a game.
“I always tell my students to find the stuffed animal of their story,” Shelton said. “Find a unique angle that no one has done before.”
Shelton reflected on what makes journalism so important–the people.
“Whether you’re writing, designing pages, or photographing, it’s all storytelling. To be able to tell someone’s story, for them to trust you enough to tell you their story and then you get to write about them. That’s the best. It’s such a cool thing to do, and I never got tired of that. You’re really writing about people if you are doing it right. People care about people.”
“I owe the Argonaut a lot because it gave me my start,” Shelton said. “You were allowed to be rough at the Argonaut. That’s what it was for, there to make mistakes and learn from them.”
Georgia Swanson can be reached at [email protected]