Ralph Elton Shatterly

Ralph Elton Shatterly, accomplished raconteur, sports aficionado, tomato cultivator, prolific historian or just plain Pop, died on Monday, January 2, 2023 at home after a brief illness. He was 83 years old. Pop grew up in the tiny town of Yanceyville, NC where he graduated from Bartlett Yancey High School in 1958. Yanceyville embraced a rural lifestyle where hunting, fishing, and camping were common pastimes. Such a close knit community, it was no surprise that most of the 43 seniors in his graduating class went on to college and had successful careers. After graduating from Appalachian State Teacher’s College in 1963, Pop taught P.E. and Social Studies at North Rowan High School. He was also excited to coach football, track, and initiate their first wrestling program. As he tells it, the first match “was a real horror story. I was finishing up football and trying to get wrestling started at the same time. We had no mats so we practiced on the bermuda grass behind the goalpost on the football field. In fact, the mat came in on Wednesday afternoon and we didn’t even have time to get the curl out of the mat before our first match. The Kannapolis Wonders came strutting in and I’d like to say we gave them a scare or that we had a moral victory. They beat us like a tied up goat. 53-0. At least nobody was seriously injured.” From such humble beginnings, he went on to coach Western North Carolina High School Activities Association champs in 1968 and 1969. He also coached conference championship teams over four decades. Even though wrestling was his favorite sport to coach, he served as Athletic Director for both North and West Rowan High Schools, coached several track champions and assisted on multiple great football teams. Culminating his exemplary career, he was inducted into the high school division of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, the Rowan County Sports Hall of Fame, and the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association’s Hall of Fame. He was especially honored to be the namesake for the Ralph Shatterly Award that honors outstanding Rowan County Schools wrestling coaches. Pop’s story wouldn’t be complete without mentioning his loving bride of 54 years, Sharon. It was at the old Beattie’s restaurant in downtown Salisbury that Pop finally got the courage to invite the young Home Economics teacher from West Rowan to sit at his table. Married in July of 1968, it was absolutely required that the nuptials take place before two-a-day football practice began. Starting in 1970 came the first of their four children together, Julie, Jill (1972), Jake (1974), and John (1976). Just like their Mom, they worshiped at the altar of sports with homemade bags of popcorn & kool-aid in canning jars for fall football night snacks, fresh baths and footie pajamas for winter wrestling nights, and finally painful splinters from the old wooden stadium seats at North Rowan track meets in the spring. Pop appreciated many of the finer things in life: Hap’s hot dogs, John Wayne, Hendrix barbecue, watching pro golf, chocolate covered peanuts, family visits to Sunset Beach, tomato sandwiches with Duke’s mayonnaise, the smell of a freshly mowed football field, pecan pie, Bear Bryant, and Legion baseball games. Pop was a member of Milford Hills United Methodist Church. He was preceded in death by his parents Pearl and Ralph Shatterly and a sister, Carolyn Shatterly. Left to cherish his memory are his wife, Sharon; sons, Jake and John; daughters, Julie (Lee Tuttle) and Jill (Stephen Hartzell); brother, David Shatterly; and grandchildren, Noah and Eiley Hartzell-Jordan, Amelia May and Chris Tuttle, Luke Shatterly and Sophie Hartzell. The family will receive friends 2-4 p.m. Sunday (January 8th) at Summersett Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to North Rowan High School Athletics or West Rowan High School Athletics. Summersett Funeral Home is serving the Shatterly family. Online condolences may be made at www.summersettfuneralhome.com.