If we get down to brass tacks if it wasn’t for Stuart Scott I wouldn’t be writing this today. If you read my pieces as time goes on here you will from time to time certainly happen upon the fact that in my younger years I was less than a prime candidate for athletics. Despite my love for them I sucked. I loved them though and that meant I was always looking for a way to be apart of them. But as you looked around at the faces that populated the television especially in my formative years it was sometimes difficult to find someone who looked like me(i.e. Black). Even when I did see someone that looked like me they felt like a version of proper and polished that a small town kid from south Georgia would never reach. No matter how smart and gifted I was I would always be that small town kid. A few times even someone in my neighbor hood would tell me that people like us didn’t get jobs like that. I might have believed them too… except their was Stuart Scott.

It wasn’t just that he was black that always had me intrigued it was that he was real. He spoke from the heart of who he was and never seemed like he needed you to like it. He would throw remixed versions of hip hop lines into the telecast without blinking an eye. He often referenced musicals and always had a new catchphrase. He never once compromised who he was for what he did. That gave me confidence not just in my future covering sports but living out my life as young black man. To see him being refreshingly honest to himself and making it was wonderful for me. He was just as polished and well spoken as his co-workers(many of whom I love) but so very down to earth in it all.

I listened to his ESPY’s speech for the first time yesterday and it brought me back to the way I feel every time I watch Jim Valvono’s (which I do a couple of times a year). I felt like I wanted to be a better man because that man existed and reminded me I have a responsibility to be better. He stood strong and he stood true. As always he stood Stuart. He made jokes, he made you think, and he made a point with every word that he said. I never thought I’d hear another speech in my life that would ever come close to what Jim Valvano’s meant to me but as always Stuart Scott used his words, attitude, and demeanor to make an impression on me.

As the day rolled along yesterday I learned I wasn’t the only person Stuart Scott had touched in such a fashion. Co-workers, athletes, celebrities, twitter followers, and contemporaries all had something to say about Stuart Scott’s impact on not just the business but them as a person and the lives they’ve lived. I want to leave that mark. I want people to see in me the honesty and true character that they saw in Stuart Scott and I think I know where to start.

I doubt much past sports there was a lot me and Stuart Scott had in common. A lot of his references I recognized but only vaguely. I wasn’t that into hip hop culture and it’d be a while before I got into musicals. Even still Stuart Scott showed me that different is good and that its ok to be yourself. That’s the challenge I make to all of you reading this today. Be the best and most honest version of yourself. Do it because Stuart showed you in the way that he lived that it was ok. Do it because once a man made the world a better place by doing it. Do it because once a man showed a young boy from the deep south that he had a shot at his dream as long as he and the dream were true. I have so much love, respect and admiration for the man who was always as cool as the other side of the pillow. Stuart Scott we will always miss and remember you. “Boo-Yah”