Glenn Frizell
BLACK HISTORY, NOTABLE BROADCASTERS, FEB. 16; Stuart Orlando Scott was an American sportscaster and anchor on ESPN, who was well known for his hip-hop style and use of catchphrases. Scott was born in July of 1965 in Chicago, Illinois. When he was seven, Scott and his family moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He graduated from Richard J. Reynolds High in 1983, where he was a captain of his football team, ran track, served as vice president of the student government and was the Sergeant at Arms of the school’s Key Club. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and was part of the on-air talent at the student-run radio station WXYC. While at UNC, he also played wide receiver and defensive back on the club football team. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts in speech communication. Following graduation, Scott worked as a news reporter and weekend sports anchor at WPDE-TV in Florence, South Carolina from 1987 until 1988. After this, Scott worked as a news reporter at WRAL-TV 5 in Raleigh, North Carolina from 1988 until 1990 and at WESH, an NBC affiliate in Orlando, Florida, from 1990 to 1993 as a sports reporter and sports anchor. Al Jaffe, ESPN’s vice president for talent, brought Scott to ESPN2 because they were looking for sportscasters who might appeal to a younger audiences. Scott’s first ESPN assignments were for SportsSmash, a short sportscast twice an hour on ESPN2’s SportsNight program. After Keith Olbermann left SportsNight for ESPN’s SportsCenter, Scott took his place in the anchor chair at SportsNight. After this, Scott was a regular on SportsCenter. Scott became well known for his use of some of the following catch phrases: “Boo-Yah!” “Hallah” “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” “They Call Him the Windex Man ‘Cause He’s Always Cleaning the Glass””You Ain’t Gotta Go Home, But You Gotta Get The Heck Outta Here.” Scott was honored at the ESPY Awards on July 16, 2014, with the Jimmy V Award for his ongoing fight against cancer. Scott died on the morning of January 4, 2015. ESPN announced: “Stuart Scott, a dedicated family man and one of ESPN’s signature SportsCenter anchors, has died after a courageous and inspiring battle with cancer. He was 49.”
