Griffin Epstein

O'Connor
1st Honors English
13 October 2015

Every Day I Fight

Stuart Scott

Early life

Stuart Scott was born in Chicago July 19, 1965

Scott and his family moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina when
Scott was just a young boy
Scott had to learn how deal with limited discrimination in the south
There where so few African -Americans in Winston Salem that when
Scott moved there he and his older brother Stephen where the first
African Americans to attend his school
However Scott thrived in Winston Salem becoming a star on his football
team

Tar Heel Blue

Scott received a football scholarship offer from Western Carolina

Scott turned it down and decided to follow his brother and go to his
true love since he had moved to North Carolina-Unversity of North
Carolina
Scott walked on to the football team but decided to just play club
football as a Tar Heel
Scott again followed his brother and joined the fraternity Alpha phi
Alpha- the oldest African American fraternity
Scott got many other great opportunities at North Carolina
including meeting Michael Jordan-who was going to college there
at the time- and found his interest in media
Scott contributed to multiple productions for the university T.V.
station and would aquire an internship at a local T.V. Station in
Durhambecause of his work at the university
Scott remained a vocal surropter of all things Tar-Heels throughout
his life
After his death North Carolina honored him at a basketball game
and the team put badges remboring one of the most influential Tar
Heels of all time
Scott will be inducted into the North Carolina journalism hall of
fame later this year

A Slow Start

Scott made good connections at his internship at

WTVD and Scott was ready to turn his experience into
a job
He sent out tapes of his rsum to small local T.V.
Stations from North Carolina to Florida
However Scott was rejected over and over again by all
the T.V. Stations he applied for
Finally Scott got an offer from the ABC affiliate in the
small city of Florence, South Carolina
However he was hired as a reporter who earned just
$200 a week
Times where tough for Scott but his work impressed
and a much larger T.V. Station WRAL in Raeligh hired
his as there night side news reporter

Making Connections

After four years in Raeligh Scott moved to Orlando where he was the
sports anchor for the NBC affiliate WESH
Scott got valuable experience in Orlando where he got to cover the
Orlando Magic and Shaquille O'Neal
In 1993 a year after being in Orlando, Scott made a valueble connection
becoming good friends with a producer from ESPN who had come to
Orlando to do a piece on Shaquille O'Neal and interviewed Scott
Scott offered the producer a tape that he wanted ESPN to see
Six months later Scott got a phone call...

The Deuce

Scott received a call from Al Jaffe the Vice President of talent at ESPN
who had been impressed by his tape and wanted to hire him to work at
the debut at there new station:ESPN2
ESPN2 was to be a younger hipper station focusing on more extreme
sports
Scott was to be an anchor on SportsSmash and also on SportsNight
ESPN2's marquee show
After three years SportsNight stopped and Scott moved to a variety of
shows including anchoring sports cents and NBA2NITE

"Cooler than the other side of the pillow"

Scott's unique hip young style made him one of

the most popular ESPN sportscasters ever
Scott became popular though his many famous
catchphrases, hip presentation, his pop culture
references, and his always entertaining dialouge
Scott continued hosting Sportscenter throughout
his carrer but he also hosted Monday Night
Football Countdown and post game for many
games
However Scott was maybe most visible in the NBA
where he hosted NBA studio shows and would
almost always interview the NBA champion as
they raised there championship trophy

"You Have Cancer"

In 2007 Scott was dealt stunning news: a stadholder ache turned into a doctor
informing her m that he had appendicitis cancer
Appendicitis cancer is an extremely rare type of cancer that starts when you
get cancer in your appendix and is almost always discovered during
abdominal surgery
About 600 to 1,000 Americans get Appendical Cancer
After a year and a half of fighting and chemotherapy doctors found no mor
cancer in Scott
However in 2010 doctors found cancer in Scott's colon that had spread from
his previous cancer

Fighting Back

While Scott continued to go through fighting through cancer he

continued to work for ESPN
Scott also got into a courageous routines after almost
everything chemotherapy session Scott would hit the gym
whether it was mixed martial arts or P90X a special type of
workout
These workouts made Scott deal stronger and like he was
beating cancer
This inspired many cancer fighters that they could go on living
there lives even when they didn't feel strong enough and that if
they continued to fight they would beat cancer

The Most Inspiring Speech

In 2014 Scott was awarded the Jimmy V Award for perseverance by ESPN at
the ESPY's for his inspiring battle with cancer
Scott told us that you should live life to the fullest and savor every moment but
always stay strong and never stop fighting
Scott told us that if you keep fighting and let your life take a turn for the worst
when your fighting cancer you beat cancer even if you die

A Lasting Legacy

Stuart Scott will never be forgotten

Scott changed sports media by making it so sportscasters could
connect with the viewer
He also made it so the sportscaster could be hip and entertaing
You can see those changes by watching shows like Sportscenters that
changed because of Sturat Scott
Scott also was inspiring in that he was a pioneer and even during
criticism about his style he stuck with it
Lastly Scott was inspiration in his seven year battle with cancer where
he never stopped fighting and always tried to work to improve his
daughters lives for the rest of there lives
Scott passes away on January 4, 2015 in Avon, Connecticust at 49
However Scott didn't lose to cancer because he made a difference in his
life that anybody can be inspired by

Works Cited
Photos courtesy of

Uptown Magazine
Mymamihood.com
Ionenewsone.files.wordpress.com
NY Times.com
SFLTimes.com
Image of Sports.com
Pmcvariety.files.wordpress.con
Thewrap.com
Kevinmd.com
Thedisneyblog.com
Mizzou.com
Go heels.com
Qualityinnflorence.com
Tribune.com
Images.ibsys.com
Pmcdeadlinc2.files.wordpress.com