The most casual of sports fans lost a friend when Stuart Scott passed away on Sunday. The ESPN anchor was a fixture on SportsCenter for many years, having been with the organization for 21 years.
What made him so different was the way in which he packaged the information that he delivered. He managed to combine a Kobe Bryant thunder dunk with one of his trademark expressions such as “cool as the other side of the pillow.”
He made listening to SportsCenter both informational and fun. When Scott teamed with Rich Eisen, now with The NFL Network, you listened more intently because in the language of some urban youth, he kept it real.
Despite some criticism from sports traditionalists, Scott invented a hip-hop style of delivering sports information. Because of him, I believe more urban youth tuned into ESPN. He was cool, serious, thoughtful and funny during his telecasts.
As I have been around students all of my professional life, you must bring your “A” game if you want to hold their attention. Scott saw the relationship early on between sports and urban communities. As a result, he developed a flair that was both appealing and contemporary. It was almost like he had a crystal ball and saw the future before it got here.
Now when you go to the playgrounds and to the playing fields you see more boys and girls competing than ever before. All of this translates into more of us becoming student-athletes in college and then some of us becoming professional athletes.
The hip-hop culture permeates almost everything that we do today. For example, rap-themed music is being used in television commercials and urban wear is becoming standard wear. Entrepreneur Russell Simmons saw this shift culturally years ago and Scott created a similar movement for the sports industry.
