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Chris Heady: Sports Writer at the Omaha World-Herald
Chris Heady is a 2016 graduate from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln with degrees in journalism and history. Currently, he is sports writer for the Omaha World-Herald. Heady is the beat writer for Nebraska men’s basketball, he also covers the Nebraska football team and other Husker athletics. He didn’t get his start in sports and is not limited to just sports. He sees himself as a storyteller above all else.
He came to the University of Nebraska – Lincoln from the Kansas City area and knew journalism was his calling. Heady developed his love for journalism as a child. He grew up during a time when the Kansas City Star had an influential sports section, highlighted by Jason Whitlock and Joe Posnanski. Heady fell in love with the work of other writers and authors; he decided he wanted to pursue the same kind of work.
“I’m kind of an old soul,” Heady said. “I like the idea of newspapers and news print. It’s really cool to get up in the morning and actually reading the newspaper.”
In high school, he followed his older brother to the high school newspaper. His experiences at the paper deepened his love and passion for written storytelling. At a high school journalism workshop, Heady met a former CoJMC professor, who recruited Heady to UNL.
The professor’s convincing worked. During his college tenure, he spent a bulk of his time working for the Daily Nebraskan, UNL’s student newspaper and interning at other newspapers. He began for the Daily Nebraskan, as a reporter for sports and by his senior year, he was the editor in chief.
If you ask him, he will attribute almost everything he learned to CoJMC professors. Something he loves about the college.
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“It was always attractive to me that you could walk into a professor’s office and talk to them,” Heady said. “I used to love going in and bugging my professors like crazy, driving them up a wall with questions about their backgrounds and receiving feedback.”
Heady took full advantage of connections made at CoJMC. In his sophomore year, a professor approached him regarding a summer internship with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock, Arkansas. Heady initially thought he was better than the Democrat-Gazette and decided to not apply. He already applied many other places, but the professor encouraged him to apply anyways. He decided to listen.
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Heady only received one internship offer; the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. It paid off. His internship in Little Rock led to more internships and multiple opportunities to learn from seasoned professionals.
In today’s world, there are many different publications covering Nebraska athletics. Heady is just one among many. His written work competes with others similar work, which causes an ongoing struggle for Heady and other journalists.
“I don’t worry about what everyone else is doing; I used to a lot,” Heady said.
The hardest part about Heady’s job is standing out. He is often doing an interview in front of his competitors and has to be creative and different.
What sets him apart from other writers, Heady isn’t a typical sports writer, his journey to become one was different, but it’s made him unique. He never had a sports-related internship.
“You are going have to know how to do things that news reporters do as a sports reporter,” Heady said. “I don’t approach my job from the sports angle; I like to approach it from the people angle.”
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During his college tenure, Heady interned with Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; he wrote feature and profile stories. He interned with the Lincoln Journal Star; he wrote for the news section. He interned with USA Today; he wrote for the Life section. Heady believes it helped him think outside the box as a sports writer.
Heady also thinks his well-rounded knowledge has paid off. College students sometimes avoid taking difficult classes in other fields of study. A journalist may never need to know how to use calculus, but Heady didn’t see those classes the way others do. He challenged himself in the classroom and embraced the non-major related courses.
“Just because you are a journalism major, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take statistics or oceanography,” Heady said.
Many journalists, including Heady say it is not vital to be an expert on a particular subject, but it’s more important to know a little about a lot of things. His diversified classes strengthened and broadened his knowledge. Heady would also say reading others’ work greatly aided his writing ability.
Another element that has benefitted the Leawood, Kansas native is working and learning from the other World-Herald writers.
“They are intimidatingly good at their jobs,” Heady said.
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Heady could generously complement each writer with which he has worked. He specifically mentioned Sam McKewon, the football beat reporter.
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“He is just so stinking smart, he approaches beat reporting in this really logical and newspapermen mentality,” Heady said. “He is a really great writer and takes chances. You read a Sam McKewon gamer and it’s different, but it works so well and it’s so interesting.”
Heady wants to emulate McKewon and the way he covers the Nebraska football team.
Heady is just getting started with his beat reporting, but it’s not his end goal. He ultimately wants to teach. It’s something he has been passionate about for a while.
He wants to be able to do what others have done for him. In a perfect world, Heady would have taught right out of college, but he didn’t feel it was fair. He felt he needed to learn in the real world.
“I need to know what that [real world experience] is like, so whenever a professor tells you something, they mean it,” Heady said. “Seeing kid’s passion about journalism; nothing beats that feeling. Every time I teach, I leave with a different feeling. I always think to myself, I want to do that.”
Whatever Heady ends up doing, he’ll succeed. He has a burning passion for journalism and people.
Some of Heady’s work can be found here.