Stuart Scott to be featured in upcoming ESPN Films 30 for 30 documentary

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Stuart Scott, the trailblazing sports journalist who grew up in North Carolina, will be the focus of an upcoming ESPN Films 30 for 30 documentary.

The project is currently in production and being directed by Andre Gains. However, ESPN has not released any further details about when it will be finished or how people can watch it.

Scott was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1965. His family moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, when he was just 7 years old. He attended Mount Tabor High School and RJ Rynolds High School before graduating in 1983 and going to the University of North Carolina, where he spent time as an intern at ABC11.

After graduating from UNC in 1987, Scott worked at three TV stations in the southern U.S. before joining ESPN for the 1993 launch of its ESPN2 network. He often anchored the 11 p.m. "SportsCenter," where he would punctuate emphatic highlights with "Boo-yah!" or note a slick move as being "as cool as the other side of the pillow."

Since his passing in 2015 the V Foundation has been working to help families fighting the disease through donations to the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund.

He proceeded to shatter preconceived notions of how people on television were supposed to look and talk. He helped bring hip-hop and Black culture into sports media mainstream.

His unique style quickly made him a force of change, gathering supporters and critics alike as he spruced up his broadcasts with references to hip-hop and other Black cultural touchstones.

"Stuart Scott transcended broadcasting, journalism, sports and culture in ways that we're only beginning to really understand and appreciate now," says the film's director Andre Gaines. "He made his mark on so many people, especially young Black men, and his legend has only grown since his passing. The opportunity I've had now to examine his life, visit his home, get to know his daughters Taelor and Sydni, and understand how incredibly vast and rich a life Stuart lived, I can only hope that audiences find the same catharsis I've already experienced in making this film."

The documentary is said to chronicle Scott's rise to fame at ESPN, his impact on media and culture, as well as his personal pain of divorce and the battle with cancer that took his life at age 49.

"We pride ourselves on telling the stories of true originals who changed the world, and Stuart epitomized that in so many ways," says Marsha Cooke, Vice President and Executive Producer of ESPN Films. "This film is the perfect tribute to a man who touched lives in front of and behind the camera. Andre Gaines has begun crafting a film that will shine a new light on who Stuart really was-from his relationship with Taelor and Sydni to the many people who saw the world differently just from spending time with him. The film will be Stuart through and through-funny, smart, edgy, touching, and transformational."