GH sports writer inducted into hall of fame

Marques Hunter

of the Gateway

Last week, three local sportswriters were inducted into the Class of 2009 Tacoma-Pierce County Hall of Fame. One of them was Gig Harbor resident Jack Sareault.

I had never sat down with a sports journalist who has 45 years of experience in the field. He was a man who transcended from hot type to cold type. Turning out a quality product those days was much more time-consuming.

I wanted to ask him a million questions about how to improve as a sportswriter; what it takes to get your head around a good feature story. Most of all, I wanted to understand how to capture all the elements of a sporting event without being too detailed or vague.

Instead, I had a simple conversation about the man’s life. He was surprised to be one of three local sportswriters — who all previously worked for The Tacoma News Tribune — to be inducted into the hall of fame.

Sareault wasn’t a sports reporter because he liked his name to abut countless local professional, college and high school sports stories. He was a sports reporter because that’s what he was best at.

Sareault doesn’t know how or where he developed the interest of playing and covering sports. He was the oldest of four siblings, and his father was an attorney. He grew up in Chehalis, Wash., with no apparent outside influences.

I don’t think a basketball hoop in the driveway counts, either.

With few forms of entertainment earlier in Sareault’s life, playing sports was probably one of the only ways to keep a young boy from going crazy.

He was a multi-sport athlete in high school and college. He would read box scores. Sareault just found sports to be interesting and worth telling about.

I can definitely agree to that.

After earning a journalism scholarship at Saint Martin’s College in Lacey, he began his journalism career at The Daily Olympian — now referred to as just The Olympian — while attending college.

There, he would become the sports editor and later matriculated to The Tacoma News Tribune in 1963. He said many of the sports reporters were laid off in 1986 after the McClatchy Company bought the newspaper.

With the advent of online media and television, more advertising dollars were beginning to shift elsewhere, away from newspaper organizations. When the 90s hit, Sareault wondered how journalism schools were approaching the idea of keeping the occupation going.

Sareault was one of the men who helped keep sports writing in tact during the mid to late 1900s. He traveled with college teams like Pacific Lutheran University and University of Puget Sound. He was a beat writer for the Tacoma Giants, the farm club to the San Francisco Giants.

It’s not often sports journalists live in and cover a particular area like Pierce County or a region the likes of the Pacific Northwest.

To live, breathe and report on sports where you were born brings a sense of local pride and loyalty.

Here is a list of accomplishments by Sareault from The Banquet of Champions event that took place June 4 in an effort to salute Tacoma-Pierce County sports.

Long-time sports writer for The Tacoma News Tribune from 1963-1986.

Freelance writer for the Associated Press, The Seattle Times and other Northwest newspapers for 16 years.

Correspondent for Golf World magazine from 1966-2002 and the coordinator of the Northwest College Sports Service from 1969-2002.

NAIA District I sports information director for 28 years.

Northwest Conference sports information director for 18 years.

Reach sports reporter Marques Hunter at 253-853-9246 or send an e-mail to marques.hunter@gateline.com