Stuart Scott was one of the biggest and most influential personalities in the history of ESPN. One venue where that personality was perhaps best seen was in his appearances in the series of “This Is SportsCenter” commercials. I’ve been working on a Top 50 list for a while so luckily a lot of these were not hard to find. I’ve gone this route (and ESPN did a wonderful job running some of these last night), because A) They’re hilarious still after a number of years, B) I felt I should do something to remember such a pivotal personality to my sports knowledge base and enthusiasm during my formative years, C) They nostalgically chronicle Scott’s longevity in an ever-changing sports world.
I’m 32, and there are only a dozen or so athletes or sports media personalities whose consistency and longevity can make me take pause and go “damn.” Often this manifests itself in the realization that a current veteran athlete is one I remember playing in college nearly 20 years ago and whose first professional game occurred before the millennium, before the internet, and in a world that seems so different and long ago. These athletes and people are a bridge back to a day where we read box scores in newspapers, highlights were almost all local and in a 5 minute block on your local news, and nobody played fantasy sports.
Scott is one of the non-athletes that takes me back to that world and just like the commercials below, thinking of him can take me back to the dozens of rooms I watched him in. He was there when I was in 5th grade and we FINALLY got cable (Boo-yah!). He was with me when I was finally allowed to have a TV in my room and would go to bed nearly every night watching SportsCenter with the sleep timer making sure the TV turned off. Scott was there in the three houses and dorm I lived in during college, the summer internships I had away from home and school, and the handful of places I’ve lived after college. He was a constant in my life at a time and in a world where very little stays constant for very long. Although I can’t say he was my all time favorite personality at ESPN, he is probably the most familiar, the most memorable, and likely the one I spent the most time watching given the vast amount of assignments and platforms he was featured on (you can easily forget hosting gigs like Stump The Schwab and Dream Job).
So many things have changed in my life, at ESPN, the sports world, and life outside of sports, but Scott was one of those very few constants that we found comfort and enjoyment in as a whirlwind of change, both good and bad, took place everywhere around us. Below is a best stab at Stuart Scott’s SportsCenter commercials chronologically over the years of a great man that we lost too soon. If you have a favorite I’ve missed, definitely link it in the comments.
The Closer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JWjvtyIZvU
Swimsuits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZaoJeDf04o
Rookie Camp 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR1E_I-e9ig
Rookie Camp 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9sY3AAXueI
Big Brother
Old Timer’s Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDvCC3Yv00I
Rain Delay
Rookie Hazing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb3wwqaRWdQ
Richard Simmons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZVazghMWPU
Touchdown Celebrations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5roG8L3edE
Chosen One
Birds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSTpMQAGPv0
Roger Federer
Who Touched My Razor?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M06kTVwXUs4
Anchor Cam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KzwbrAd928
