Born: Gander, Newfoundland Labrador
Age: 25 (on Valentine’s Day)
Program: Sports Journalism
Shawn Pittman is a 2009 graduate of Loyalist’s Broadcast Journalism program. He interned at KIX.106 FM radio in Peace River, Alberta, in the spring of 2009, and is now enrolled in Loyalist’s one-year, post-grad Sports Journalism program.
Born and raised in Newfoundland Labrador, Shawn decided to do one of his reporting assignments on the Montreal Canadiens and admits he was a bit nervous interviewing a couple of former Habs’ greats.
We’ll let Shawn tell the story in his own words:
“For my profile assignment, I set up some pretty solid interviews. First, I e-mailed Rejean Houle. He’s a former Montreal Canadiens who’s now the team ambassador and head of its Alumni Association. He called me back during fall study week. So I was sleeping in and his phone call woke me up. I was groggy and then I heard ‘This is Rejean Oooilllll’. I set up an interview with him for later on and he helped me set up a phone interview with Jean Béliveau for about a week later.
It went really well. First, I talked to Rejean Houle for about 10 minutes about hockey, the Canadiens, about what he does with the team. He’s very friendly; nice to talk to. Good sense of humour. I asked him what his favourite sport is now and he said golf, but his handicap isn’t that good. I said maybe that’s because he was spending too much time winning hockey games and Stanley Cups instead of playing golf. He laughed about that.
About a week later, I was in our meeting with the Sports Journalism Advisory Committee since I’m the student rep. My cellphone went off. It was on vibrate, of course. After the meeting, the first thing in my head was that it must be Jean Béliveau. He left a message for me to call him back. So I went straight to the radio studio and called him.
When I heard that voice I thought ‘Wow! Is this really happening?’ I grew up a die-hard Montreal Canadiens fan. My dad, Murdock, planted it in my head as soon as I was old enough to understand. Montreal was the team. It’s the greatest. I would never be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.
Before I called Jean Béliveau, I sat there in the little radio booth for a few minutes just looking at the phone. I double-checked everything to make sure it was working; that it would record my phone interview. Then I finally made myself make the phone call. After a couple of rings, he answered on a speaker phone. I heard the voice and thought, ‘Wow, let’s get going’.
I forget the first question I asked him, but then we just started talking hockey for about 20 minutes. All my nerves just went away. I was relaxed. I thought I was going to be nervous for the whole call and forget something major.
Right at the end of the interview, I said thank you so much for doing this. He said, “It’s my pleasure and good luck”. He’s one of the greatest hockey players of all time. For him to say it’s a pleasure to talk to me when I’m just getting started in journalism made me feel really good.
The last time any Canadian team won the Stanley Cup was 1993 and it was the Montreal Canadiens. So I asked Béliveau when he thinks the Canadiens will win the Cup again. Right away, he said, “Huh!” I chuckled. He talked about what the team needs to do to win. He’s not making any predictions. Yet."
