Ben Hart
January 5th, 2015
On Sunday January 4th, ESPN lost who many believe to be their most respected anchor. Stuart Scott, who had been with ESPN for twenty years, lost his life to cancer at the age of 49. Scott, at times was the favorite SportsCenter anchor to many players and other athletes. For some, they considered him a close, personal friend. Stuart’s closest friends who were athletes included LeBron James, NFL Hall of Fame inductee Barry Sanders, and Tiger Woods.
Doctors diagnosed Stuart with cancer firstly in spring 2007, but he continued to be on the air following his diagnosis, with big hopes to beat the disease. Stuart fought almost eight years before he lost the fight. Sunday morning was a very different episode of SportsCenter, a common feeling of sadness was obvious from the anchors, but they paid a tribute to Stuart that brought tears to every anchor as well as some of the athletes involved in the tribute. ESPN explained that Stuart Scott has impacted them in so many ways and he will be truly missed.
On the 2014 ESPY’s, ESPN’s own award show, the “Jimmy V Award” was presented to Scott due to his courageous battle with cancer. This award pays tribute to Jimmy Valvano, a very famous college basketball coach and broadcaster who had a very similar battle with cancer before he passed away young at 47. Jimmy was mostly famous for his impactful speech at the 1993 ESPY awards, eight weeks before his death. Jimmy’s speech gave hope to all people in a negative situation, and Stuart did the same thing with the speech he gave at the latest ESPY’S.
Many sports fans who regularly watch ESPN are impacted by this. Even though they did not personally know Stuart, the absence of excitement, positivity, and even the catch phrases that Stuart possessed such as “Booyah!” and “Cool as the other side of the pillow” will surely affect everyone watching SportsCenter, or any NFL or NBA games Stuart would be covering. Mainly, hearing this news will affect those who have been affected by cancer.
Colonie’s iCare program focused on cancer last year, and in many ways showed how the fight should always be won. Their efforts raised a lot of money and gave many people hope that anyone close to them affected by this disease could overcome it if they had a chance to, and if not their efforts helped them through as much as possible. The speech given by Stuart Scott at the ESPY’s brought tears to the whole audience, by bringing his daughters on stage and sharing his courageous, hopeful attitude with the audience and viewers inspired many, very similar to the speech given by Jimmy Valvano. Because all of the messages given by iCare’s fundraisers and events to those who attended the events or assemblies, and because of Stuart Scott and Jimmy V’s speeches as well as their hopeful attitudes to this terrible disease, people were given a better attitude toward cancer.
