J-Speaks: The Passing of Sports Personality “Cooler Than the Other Side of the Pillow”

A little over two decades ago, an unknown sports reporter was hired by ESPN and he would change the landscape of broadcast sports journalism forever. His unique way of blending hip-hop and urban culture and sports was unlike anything that was ever put on the small screen. His catch phrases, demeanor and presentation captivated all that watch from the athletes on the field, ice and hardwood to those that watch him from the barbershop to their own televisions. More than anything else, this sports journalist was a proud man who gave his heart, soul, energy and focus to his job and earned the respect from those that worked with him, those that saw him on the small screen or met him. Above all else, this man took as much pride at being a father to his two daughters as he did talking with athletes and giving us the highlights on the happenings in the world of sports. Three weeks, that great sports anchor said goodbye way too soon.

On the morning of Jan. 4, Stuart Scott, one of the signature anchors of ESPN flagship highlight show “Sportscenter,” passed away after a long battle with cancer that captivated this nation. He was just 49 years old.

He leaves behind his two teenage daughters Taelor, 19 and Sydni, 15 from his ex-wife Kimberly Scott, who he was married to from 1993-2007.

His passing was one that rocked not just his colleagues at ESPN, but many fans, teams from the college ranks to the pros.

On “Postseason Sunday NFL Countdown” back on Jan. 5, which Scott worked from 1999-2001 as well as Monday Night Countdown from 2002-2005, each of the host shared their feelings and memories of their colleague.

Lead host Chris Berman said that his former colleague that he was “Full of Life.”

“Full of Life means someone who battled cancer head on three times. Never lost his great attitude about beating it and never lost his drive and energy in fighting it.”

Berman’s longtime sidekick and former Denver Broncos great linebacker Tom Jackson said he would remember Scott for the true professional, kind person and devoted dad that he was.

“I think he took more pride in that than anything else. There is a certain sense in this building of tremendous loss. Were all gonna feel it for a while,” Jackson said.

Hall of Fame wide receiver Chris Carter, called Scott his role model not to mention hundreds of pro athletes who want to be legitimate sports journalist.

“The number one thing for as a person who wanted to be a broadcaster, he was a role model. He talked on ‘Sportscenter’ liked me and my friends talked,” Carter said. “He did it his way and he was great at it.”

Former New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, who first met Scott while he and new Lakers guard Kobe Bryant were doing a commercial for “Sportcenter,” back in 1996 one of the things that Scott told him when he first took the job as a studio host on Sunday NFL Countdown is to not change who he was. To be exactly who he was.

“[Scott] gave me the hope that I didn’t have to be some corporate guy. To feel like I needed to wear the white shirt with the red tie and sit there and talk a certain way,” the former No. 1 overall pick in 1996 out of University of Southern California, who has two daughters of his own said. 

Perhaps the biggest point was shared by former Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka, when he said, “This is all going to happen to all of us someday. It’s just an unfortunate that it happened to someone at age 50. That’s the thing that bothers me.”

Along with many of his colleagues at ESPN, many pro athletes that were interviewed by Scott or remember watching him on television paid their respects to him.

Via twitter, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James said on that Sunday, “What you did for our culture, bringing that swag to reporting can only be copied (which I hear today on TV watching sports). I would say not because they stealing your swag, it’s all out of RESPECT! It was always a breath of fresh fun air when you would show up and we’d chat up. Thank you so much for being you and giving us inner city kids someone we could relate to that wasn’t a player but was close enough to them.”

Hall of Famer and Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan in a statement said, “I’m so sad to hear the news that Stuart has passed away. He was truly a trailblazer in his field, and by refusing to change his style, made himself into a star.”

“We lost one of the NBA’s most beloved commentators and reporters as well as a friend to so many of us at the NBA. Our deepest condolences to Stuart Scott’s family and colleagues at ESPN.” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement last week.

President Barack Obama, who was interviewed by Scott during his candidacy for United States President back in 2008, in a statement said he will miss him very much.

“Twenty years ago, Stu helped usher in a new way to talk about our favorite teams and the day’s best plays. For much of those twenty years, public service and campaigns have kept me from my family—but wherever I went, I could flip on the TV and Stu and his colleagues on ‘Sportscenter were there. Over the years, he entertained us, and in the end, he inspired us—with courage and love. Michelle and I offer our thoughts and prayers to his family, friends and colleagues.”

Upon his graduation from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in speech communication, Scott began his journey of sports broadcasting in 1987 as the news reporter and weekend sports anchor at WPDE-TV in Florence, SC, where he came up with one of his most notable phrase, “cooler than the other side of the pillow,” which later became, “As cool as the other side of the pillow.” 

Scott then worked as a news reporter at WRAL_TV in Raleigh, NC from 1988-1990. A former colleague of Scott’s Jeff Gravely, the WRAL Sports anchor said that Scott had a natural bond with the sports department. That he had a style that was creative and gregarious and that he brought a tremendous energy to the newsroom.

Even after he rose to greatness at ESPN, Scott never forgot where he laid the ground work for his greatness as he would always make the time to visit his former co-workers at WRAL and he treated them like family.

After his two-year stint at WRAL, Scott spent the next three years (1990-93) as a sports reporter and sports anchor at WESH, the NBC affiliate in Orlando, FL. While there, he met Gus Ramsey, a new producer at ESPN.

Ramsey grew a great respect for Scott after a piece he did on a rodeo, which earned him first place honors from the Central Florida Press Club.

“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 someday. He went out and nailed it just like he would nail the NBA Finals for ESPN,” Ramsey said at that time.

Scott career on ESPN began when he was brought in by vice president Al Jaffe when the network was looking for sportscaster that their younger audience would appeal to.

Scott first assignment at ESPN was for “SportsSmash,” a short sportscast that aired twice an hour on ESPN 2’s SportsNight program.

He would eventually replace Keith Olbermann as the anchor of “SportsNight” when he left for “Sportscenter.”

Eventually, Scott moved on to ESPN’s flagship show and the rest is history.

A history where Pardon the Interruption’s Michael Wilbon said that Scott permitted his personality to infuse the coverage that he saw and his emotion to pour out the words to the audience watching.

That history would also include many great catch phrases like “Boo-Yah,” “Hallah,” “As cool as the other side of the pillow,” “He must be the bus driver cuz he was takin’ him to school,” “Holla at a playa when you see him in the street,” “Just call him butter’ cause he’s on a roll,” to name a few.

“He did not shy away from the fact that he was a black man, and that allowed the rest of us who came along to just be ourselves,” fellow ESPN colleague Stan Verrett said of Scott.

Scott’s career and life all changed in Nov. 2007 when covering a Monday night tilt between the Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers, he sustained a stomach ache. When the pain in his stomach grew worse, Scott was rushed to the hospital, where he had his appendix removed. After testing his appendix, doctors learned that Scott had cancer. He had surgery in New York 48 hours later where a part of his colon and some lymph nodes were removed.

By December of that year, Scott returned to work hosting Friday night NBA coverage on ESPN and led the coverage of ABC’s NBA Christmas Day studio show-while still undergoing chemotherapy.

The cancer unfortunately returned four years later. After chemo, Scott turned to mixed martial arts as well as a P90X workout regimen.

By 2014, Scott had undergone 58 infusions of chemo and then switched to chemotherapy pills. He also underwent a number of surgeries as part of his treatment. Through that time, he never wanted to what stage of the cancer he was in.

Through it all, he kept on working whether it was for Monday Night Football, NBA coverage or his duties at ESPN.

When he did go back to work and people knew of his diagnosis, the well wishes were overbearing to him because he just wanted to talk about sports.

“One of the coolest things about having cancer, and I know that sounds like an oxymoron, is meeting other people who’ve had to fight it. You have a bond. It’s like a fraternity or sorority.”

Two people Scott knows that have got cancer, but fought like the devil to beat it are his ESPN colleague NFL Analyst Merril Hoge and former “Sportscenter” anchor and now “Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts.

On July 16, 2014 at ESPN’s annual awards show the ESPYS, Scott received the Jimmy V Award, for his ongoing fight with cancer and gave an acceptance speech that might be considered one of the greatest of all-time.

“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.”

He concluded his speech by talking about his greatest purpose for continuing to fight, his two daughters.

“I can’t ever give up because I can’t leave my daughters,” Scott said.

As he concluded his speech by saying, “Have a great rest of your night, have a great rest of your life,” he asked for a hug from his daughter Sydni, which she came to the stage and hugged her father.

It is very rare in one’s life that you get a chance to meet someone that you respect as a person as well as the work they do in their profession. Nearly a decade ago, I attended the National Association of Black Journalism (NABJ) Conference in Atlanta, GA and I got a chance to meet Stuart Scott. I even got a chance to take a picture with him. On top of that, I got a chance to chat with him and pick his brain a little on what I needed to do to break in to being a sports journalist. For someone he just met, he could not have been more kind, honest and cool.

I had a chance to meet up with him two more times in 2007 and 2008 at two more NABJ conferences. I never thought in my life I would be standing to what many called a trailblazer who looked the same as me, talked like me and even wore glasses like me.  

More than anything that I have learned from seeing him on the small screen and in person is that he was not just physically there, but emotionally he was there. He owned where ever he was. He had a presence that people gravitated toward him. He had a way of speaking to you when the conversation was finished, it left an impression on you. Above all though, he was great at his job and he had fun doing it and he respected it.

Back on the aforementioned date of Jan. 4, ESPN and the sports world at large said goodbye all too soon to a sportscaster that was just as comfortable quoting from Shakespeare as he was lyrics from hip hop or R&B. He had a way of connecting to sports fans from the suburbs of Connecticut to the tough neighborhoods of Detroit, New York and California. More than anything else, Stuart Scott whenever he sat in the anchor chair of “Sportscenter, on the field of play during the pre-game or postgame of ESPN’s NFL coverage of Monday Night Football or the pre-game show for NBA on ESPN and looked into that camera and opened his mouth he was no phony and he delivered every time, even while battling cancer, three separate times.

“One thing that I know about this camera I’m looking in is it is a truth teller and it will expose phonies who perform in front of it. Stuart was no phony. He was joyful and happy with what he did and he brought that joy to every broadcast and interview he conducted,” NBATV/NBA on TNT Insider and former colleague at ESPN for eight years David Aldridge said on NBATV’s “The Beat,” on Jan. 5.

The 2015 NBA All-Star Game will take place in New York, NY next month. One of the events that I look forward to the most is the Celebrity All-Star Game, which is commentated by Mark Jones and Jon Barry and handling the sideline interviews with all the celebrity participants in the game the past few years has been Stuart Scott. While the game will still go on and will be entertaining as it has been since its inception a few years ago, it will not be the same without Scott as a part of it. Monday Night Countdown, not to mention the coverage of Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will not be the same and neither will the NBA broadcast on ESPN.

Information and quotations are courtesy of 1/4/15 9 p.m. Halftime report of the Go Daddy Bowl between Toledo and Arkansas State; 1/4/15 edition of Postseason Sunday NFL Countdown with Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, Mike Ditka, Chris Carter and Keyshawn Johnson; 1/5/15 2 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime” with Rick Kamla, Rick Fox and Brent Barry; 1/5/15 6 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “The Beat” with Vince Cellini, David Aldridge, Sekou Smith and Howard Beck; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Scott.