Q&A With Don Shelby: Part 1

Don Shelby, the former WCCO anchor and a Minnesota journalism figure for more than 30 years, will visit  in Stillwater on Saturday, Sept. 10 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., to sign copies of his new book, The Season Never Ends: Wins, Losses, and the Wisdom of the Court. Stillwater Patch caught up with Shelby and asked him about his book and how he’s adjusted to retired life. This is the first in a four-part series.

Stillwater Patch: Were you working on this book before you retired?

Don Shelby: I’ve written these stories over the past 25 years. I wrote these stories for a great basketball newspaper called The Full Court Press, and when my daughter, who is a basketball player, came back from six years of publishing at Penguin, she asked me where those stories were because they were important to her. I had a few at home and then she went down to the library and collected all of these newspapers and keypunched all of the stories in, made copies of all of them, and then she edited them. I wrote five new ones, and Bascom Hill Publishing Group took a look at the book and said, “This book has some potential.” So I didn’t have to sit down after I retired and write a book. It was already written.

Stillwater Patch: How do you like retired life?

Shelby: I don’t like it a lot because I’m working harder than I’ve ever worked and I’m not getting paid so what’s to like about that?

Stillwater Patch: Do you get to spend more time with your family?

Shelby: I get to spend more time with my family and I get to be a better grandpa, a lot better grandpa than I think I would be if I were continuing to work. And I have managed to take a little time off and spend some very needed time in the Boundary Waters, the Quetico, the St. Croix River and on the Mississippi River with the Urban Canoe Wilderness Adventures.

Stillwater Patch: Did you ever want to be a sports reporter?

Shelby: I was a sports reporter for about 25 minutes once. I was a person who loved the games. But I was never good with names or statistics, and to be a good sports reporter, you need to have a full reservoir of that kind of knowledge, and I didn’t so I ended up not being very good. However, toward the end of my career, one of the things I did want to be able to do was call play-by-play basketball, and I did call one game. It was aired on WCCO AM radio, the University of Minnesota Golden Gopher Women’s Basketball game against the Hoosiers of Indiana. And I called that game, and I just had a ball. I thought maybe that would be my second career, maybe I could just sign up and be a play-by-play guy.

Stillwater Patch: You could be like one of those athletes who goes into TV after they retire.

Shelby: That’s true! I might be a TV guy going back into TV.

Check back tomorrow for the second part of the series.