Photo Credit - USA Today
Legendary Broadcast Sports Journalist Stuart Scott, died the morning hours of Sunday, January 4, 2015, at the age of 49.
Article Originally Published at
Independent Underground News & Talk
This article is not about politics in the traditional form. Republican v.s. Democrat. Left v.s. Right. Blue States or Red States.
Instead it is how by setting a defining path within an industry that race, politics, strength and culture are combined on a regular basis, ESPN Sports Journalist Stuart Scott became a Legend, Foot Soldier and the exceed the bar "Doing It Your On Way".
Barely four days into the New Year, saddest takes over any sort of enjoyment on the untimely passing of legendary ESPN affiliated Broadcast Journalist Sports Anchor Stuart Scott, at the young age of 49. Scott with courage and conviction battled the Big "C" known as Cancer on three occasions, first starting with what was then in 2007 emergency surgery to relieve symptoms from acute appendicitis. During the surgery, a cancerous tumor was discovered.
Normally, the rest would be history.
Yet Scott bravely fought and beat back the Big "C" on two occasions, only for the disease which take the lives of so many humans way too soon final recurrence in 2013. Despite preparing for another unwanted or desired battle, in the midst of struggle Scott gave what can be described as the defining speech of a generation, about his fight with Cancer upon accepting the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the ESPYS on July 16, 2014.
View Stuart Scott's Speech Upon accepting the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the ESPYS on July 16, 2014 here
Boo-Yah was one of the 'Scottism' phases that would defined Scott's legendary tenure at ESPN.
Starting on ESPN2 and creating a trailblazing path to follow on the popular ESPN Sport Center program, many members of Generation X felt an immediate connection to Scott's creative style of pontificating sports stories in a way he knew was correct, connecting and setting a high bar of professionalism, his way.
In reflection, Scott's style was the right and only way for a member of the African-American Hip-Hop Generation could do it, plus gain the respect and praise of the first group post the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950's and 1960's.
Despite these obvious facts to Scott, others who failed to connect with his culture, history or any desire to learn the road less traveled, completely disengaged to his style and injected racist conjecture into the spirited delivery of sports journalism.
"But as Stuart's star rose, so did the vitriol of those who resented his color, or his hip-hop style, or his generation. He received a lot of hate mail, most of it anonymous. If the senders did leave a name and address, Stuart would answer and ask them to tell him what the problem really was," an article on ESPN describing Scott's tenure cited.
He was disarming in other ways, as well. He may have represented new school, but he was decidedly old school when it came to preparation. Nobody could ever say he didn't work hard, or labor over his "SportsCenter" lead-ins. "He was really conscious of getting it right," says ESPN anchor Linda Cohn. "He had that great balance of being entertaining and being right."
However with the rise of Stuart Scott, long gone were the days of conforming to an unreasonable square box type standard leaving Generation Xers scratching their heads or mumbling underneath their breath of yet another "cookie cutter" personality failing to connect the peer group in a insincere effort for conforming to the masses. Instead enter Stuart Scott opening the door and blasting through unrelenting in style, depth and substance. Lining the pathways of Gen X Hip-Hop affiliated Sports Anchors to follow: Cris Collins, Jaden Rose, Chris Webber or Keyshawn Johnson just to name a few.
Scott is and will remain in history of years to come, the standard of Sports Journalism at its' finest - marching on step by step aside historically others who will set and dominate new standards of decades to come.
Leaving to cherish in memories, two daughters Taelor, 19, and Sydni, 15 Stuart Scott will be missed for being "As cool as the other side of the pillow".
12:13 PM PT: UPDATE 1/4/2014 @ 3:07 pm ET: U.S. President Barack Obama has issued a statement on the passing of Legendary ESPN Sports Anchor Stuart Scott:
"I will miss Stuart Scott. Twenty years ago, Stu helped usher in a new way to talk about our favorite sports teams and the day's best plays. For much of those twenty years, public service and campaigns have kept me away from my family - but wherever I went, I could flip on TV and Stu and his colleagues from 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".