Sports world mourns the loss of longtime ESPN sportscaster Stuart Scott
Stuart Scott, the popular ESPN sportscaster who graduated from the University of North Carolina and worked early in his journalism career at a Raleigh television station, died Sunday morning after a protracted battle with cancer. He was 49.
There was an outpouring of condolences and tributes from across television and on Twitter on Sunday for Scott, who became a broadcasting star in the 1990s on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”
Scott, as no less than President Barack Obama put it Sunday, “helped usher in a new way to talk about our favorite teams and the day’s best plays.”
“Over the years, he entertained us, and in the end, he inspired us – with courage and love,” Obama wrote in a statement released by the White House.
Scott was known for his trademark catchphrases –“Boo-Yah!” and “as cool as the other side of the pillow,” two among many – and his ability to integrate hip-hop culture with sports in a way that had never been done at ESPN or anywhere on television.
Scott was equally known for his passion for UNC and his devotion to his daughters, Taelor, 19, and Sydni, 15, as he fought a rare cancer, which was originally diagnosed when he had his appendix removed in November 2007.
Scott won the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the ESPNYs this past July and made an impassioned speech about his fight with cancer.
“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer,” Scott said during his speech. “You beat cancer by how you live, why you live and in the manner in which you live. So live, live, fight like hell.”
The news of Scott’s death moved athletes, from LeBron James and Michael Jordan to Tiger Woods, and those who are suffering from cancer and lives he touched through his work with the Jimmy V Foundation.
“He was truly a trailblazer in his field, and by refusing to change his style, made himself into a star,” Jordan wrote in a statement. “Boo-yah, my brother.”
“SportsCenter” and his pregame host role for “Monday Night Football” defined Scott’s professional career, which included a stop at WRAL-TV in Raleigh for three years before his star took off with ESPN in 1993.
Scott was born in Chicago and went to high school in Winston-Salem, but the 1987 UNC graduate was the personification of Carolina pride.
He had a love for all things UNC, especially the Tar Heels basketball team. The school had a moment of silence for Scott before the UNC’s women’s basketball game with N.C. State on Sunday.
He regularly came back to Chapel Hill to host “Late Night with Roy Williams.”
Williams, the coach of UNC’s men’s basketball team, said in a statement it was fun listening to Scott on TV: “ ‘Vince Carter – Tar Heel. Antawn Jamison – Tar Heel.’ I loved that part of it,” Williams said.
Williams called Scott an inspiration and a pioneer.
“He really is an inspiration,” Williams said. “Always has been and always will be. He was a pioneer in the media world with his catchphrases. He was a pioneer in saying things that nobody else would say, or he was the first one to say them.
“But at the same time, the toughness that he showed and the public perception that was so true about how he fought this battle was something that would make John Wayne envy him.”
There were many tributes and kind words for Scott on Sunday from across the sports world, perhaps none more moving than those from Rich Eisen.
Eisen, who referred to Scott as his “TV wife” from their time together on “SportsCenter,” spoke on NFL Network on Sunday morning minutes after learning the news about his friend’s death.
“I love this man, I still love this man,” Eisen said during the “GameDay Morning” broadcast. “The fact that he has passed away is absolutely mind-boggling and a travesty.”
“He battled cancer as bravely as anybody else and I know there are many people out there who are battling cancer right now. Stuart would want you to know to keep fighting, keep fighting. He didn’t lose this battle with cancer, he fought it as bravely as he possibly could.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2015 at 6:28 PM.