Stan Savran. Stan Savran. (AT&T Sportsnet Pittsburgh.)
Local NetworksBy Andrew Bucholtz on

Famed Pittsburgh sports anchor and host Stan Savran passed away Monday at 76. Savran had been covering sports in that city since January 1976, working across radio and TV. He was particularly known for hosting the SportsBeat TV show that ran from 1991-2009, but he continued in media after that, and kept working on his regular radio show until he was diagnosed with lung cancer and lost a leg to diabetes this winter. Some of Savran’s impact can be seen in the salutes to him from the city’s teams:

Beyond that, many in the media world have had remarkable things to say about Savran. Some of that comes from his long-time friend and co-host Guy Junker, who co-hosted SportsBeat from 1991-2003. Junker told Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review how impressed he was with Savran’s sports knowledge, and how he used it, including working without a teleprompter.

“He was Google before there was Google,” longtime friend and co-host Guy Junker said. “I don’t know if a photographic memory is a real thing, but if it is, he had it. He had a very eloquent way of putting things. And he just had a few notes on a yellow legal pad.”

…“We’ve had some really talented sports broadcasters in Pittsburgh — Bob Prince, Myron Cope, Mike Lange — and Stan is certainly on the Mount Rushmore of that,” Junker said. “He’s the last of a dying breed. He took shots, but they were fair. He didn’t take cheap shots. Things always had to be accurate. It was old-school journalism with a fastball.”

In another collection of tributes, Gorman got a great quote from Savran’s former TV coworker Bryan Anlauf:

After diabetes stole some of his toes, Stan Savran’s co-workers at AT&T SportsNet would drive the iconic sportscaster two blocks down North Shore Drive and drop him off at the Bill Mazeroski statue outside PNC Park.

“He’d open the door, and it was like a rock star getting out,” said Bryan Anlauf, an AT&T SportsNet photographer since 1996. “Everybody was like, ‘Stan, love the show!’ He’d hit them with that classic line, ‘Oh, you’re the one.’ He’d have that briefcase and those mirrored sunglasses and it was like showtime. It was on.”

At The Athletic, Mark Kaboly (who previously wrote a piece in 2019 on the 10th anniversary of the end of SportsBeat) had some notable comments on Savran’s drive to keep working:

I sat down with him inside the Steelers media room a couple of months ago. His health was noticeably in decline to everybody except maybe him. I would never pass up an opportunity to stop and talk to Stan, usually about sports.

But not this time.

I wasn’t interested in whether he thought Matt Canada would be back for another season or whether general manager Omar Khan was going to put his stamp on the team during the offseason. I wanted to know how he was doing, how he was feeling — or, as I put it, “You hanging in there?” He obliged, to a degree, but the topic didn’t interest him much. Then he paused, stared me directly in the eyes and said: “I’m never going to retire. No way. Never.”

…This was a guy who went on the air not long after brain surgery, who had open-heart surgery and back surgery — do you really think missing a toe or two or battling cancer scared him? Hell no.

He was going out his way, and that was with a microphone in one hand and his leather briefcase in the other. How can you not respect a man like that?

Twitter has also seen a lot of tributes to Savran, who certainly fits into that mold of iconic local sports personality. Here are some of those:

Our thoughts go out to Savran’s family and friends.

[The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, The Athletic; image from AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh on Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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