Stuart Scott, the longtime ESPN anchor, passed away today at the age of 49, the network announced.
Scott had been battling cancer since an emergency appendectomy in the fall of 2007 revealed a malignancy, which required further surgery.
Scott was, for sports fans across the nation and the globe, a truly beloved figure. From catch phrases like "Boo-Yah!" to "As cool as the other side of the pillow," to the innumerably hilarious "This Is SportsCenter" commercials he appeared in along with his fellow anchors, Scott endeared himself to a generation of sports fanatics not likely to forget his natural, positive energy and enthralling, captivating style.
"He didn't just push the envelope," says sports radio host and former ESPN anchor Dan Patrick. "He bulldozed it."
"SportsCenter" anchor Jay Harris, who spent his formative years emulating Scott, said that Scott was the perfect embodiment of his famous "other side of the pillow" catchphrase.
"Think about that phrase, 'As cool as the other side of the pillow.' It's a hot, stifling night. You're having trouble sleeping. But then you think to turn the pillow over, and, wow, it's cool, and it feels so good.
"Well, that's who Stuart is. He is 'the other side of pillow,' the man who made sportscasting cool. God bless whoever it was who thought to rearrange the bedding at ESPN."
Stuart, born in Chicago but raised in North Carolina, bounced around the broadcasting world before really making his mark at ESPN2, then onto the main stage at ESPN.
"You knew the second he walked in the door that it was a pit stop, and that he was gonna be this big star somewhere some day," said ESPN producer Gus Ramsey, who met Stuart when he was working at NBC's Orlando affiliate, WESH. "He went out and did a piece on the rodeo, and he nailed it just like he would nail the NBA Finals for ESPN."
Through every job transition, every step up the ladder, Scott stayed true to himself, refusing to change a style that, even ESPN at times, thought could be a bit too much.
"When he went to ESPN, Stuart didn't change his style -- and there was some resistance," said Suzy Kolber, an ESPN anchor who started with the network, along with Scott, at ESPN2. "Even I encouraged him to maybe take a more traditional approach, but he had a strong conviction about who he wanted to be, and the voice he wanted to project, and clearly, he was right, and we were wrong."
Scott's positive, captivating personality on-screen was, apparently, matched only by the happiness, caring and compassion he displayed off it.
"That's what I love about him," says Kolber. "No matter how big he got, now matter how bad it got, he never changed. He loved his work, he loved his daughters, he loved being Stu."
