ESPN commentator, motivator succumbs to cancer

Scott: ‘Our life’s journey is about the people who touch us’

By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com

* Video – Stuart Scott’s ESPY speech

The world of sport often provides a grander stage for participants to view the big picture in life. It goes beyond the results, beyond the statistics, beyond the games and beyond the fields of play. It becomes about the people.

Image courtesy ESPN

Image courtesy ESPN

There’s no better recent example than Stuart Scott. Scott, battling cancer, gave a speech for the ages while accepting the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance.

“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer,” Scott said. “You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live. Our life’s journey is about the people who touch us.”

Scott died early Sunday. He was 49.

The speech, wrote Forbes columnist Roger Groves, was “one of the best ever.” It took fans of sport away from petty contract disputes or signing bonuses.

“He changed the tone and language of sports broadcasting,” Groves wrote, “making it more true to the source points with a ‘boo-ya’ and a courageous quip from the ‘hood in almost every sportscast.”

Scott was a native of Chicago but attended high school in North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and worked for three television stations in the south prior to joining ESPN in 1993.

“He made SportsCenter what it is,” said longtime commentary Chris Berman. “He made us better people.”

Scott leaves behind two daughters, Taelor, 19, and Sydni, 15; girlfriend Kristin Spodobalski; his parents, O. Ray and Jacqueline Scott; and siblings Stephen Scott, Synthia Kearned and Susan Scott.

 

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