Stuart Scott: Influential Sportscaster

Story by Isaiah Lipscombe; Photos by celebritynetworth.com.

March 13, 2014: I chose to write about Stuart Scott because I never knew that an anchor or sportscaster can be so iconic and influential in people’s lives.

Stuart Scott was born July 19, 1965 in Chicago, Illinois but, grew up in North Carolina. He attended Mount Tabor High School but graduated from high school education at Richard J. Reynolds.

In the early 1980s he performed in West Side Story and The Wiz. Scott attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill). He majored in speech communication. As a college football player, he played as a wide receiver and defensive back. Scott was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1987.

After college, Scott started out at WPDE-TV as a reporter in Florence, South Carolina. Afterwards, he worked up the ranks to television stations in Raleigh, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida.

In 1993, Scott joined ESPN to launch ESPN2. He was an anchor on SportsCenter. On SportsCenter, he had sometimes co-anchored with Rich Eisen. Scott was well-known for his catch phrases like, “Boo Yah” and “call him butter, he’s on a roll”. Scott married Kimberly Alice Emmons in 1993. In 2002 at Jets training camp, Scott was hit in the face by a football. He underwent surgery and was diagnosed with ptosis (eyelid drooping). In 2007, Scott got a divorce. His daughters Taelor and Syndi lived with him.

In November 2007, Scott had an emergency appendectomy after becoming ill covering a Monday Night Football game. The surgery showed he needed additional surgery to remove cancerous tissue. He returned to work a month later.

In Scott’s career, he has been on NFL Matchup, NFL Live, NFL PrimeTime, NFL Countdown, NBA Fastbreak and has covered the NBA Finals. He’s played roles in movies like He Got Game, Enchanted, Drumline, Mr.3000, The Longest Yard and The Game Plan. He had his own column in every ESPN Magazine, called the ‘Holla’ column. He’s interviewed people like, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama.

In 2011, the cancer came back and he went into remission early 2012. On January 14, 2013, he was diagnosed with cancer again. On July 16, 2014, Stuart Scott was awarded with the Jimmy V. Award for Perseverance. Stuart Scott died at age 49 on January 4, 2015.

Isaiah Lipscombe is a 9th grade student at Friendship Collegiate Academy.