Scott attended Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and went to college at the University of North Carolina. He was also part of the on-air talent at the student-run radio station WXYC. He graduated from UNC in 1987 with a bachelor of arts in speech communication. Following graduation, Scott worked as a reporter at WPDE-TV in Florence, South Carolina, from 1988–1990 and at WRAL-TV 5 in Raleigh, North Carolina, from 1990–1993. He also worked at WESH, an NBC affiliate in Orlando, Florida, from 1993–1995. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity founded by African Americans.
Scott joined ESPN2 at the network's launch in 1993 as the host of SportsNight. He currently works for the ESPN family of networks as an anchor for SportsCenter episodes as well as National Football League and National Basketball Association programming. Scott also appears in each issue of ESPN the Magazine. In his work at ESPN he has interviewed top professional athletes such as Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan as well as two American Presidents, then-Senator Barack Obama and Bill Clinton..
Style
At SportsCenter Scott was frequently teamed with fellow anchor Rich Eisen. He became well known for his use of unique catch phrases, following in the SportsCenter tradition begun by Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann, such as "he's as cool as the other side of the pillow" "call him butter, because he's on a roll" and "Boo Yah!". He was parodied on SNL by Tim Meadows and Finesse Mitchell.
Past television shows
Besides SportsCenter, Scott has been the host of a number of television shows. His NFL work includes NFL Matchup, NFL Live, NFL PrimeTime, and NFL Countdown, while his NBA work includes hosting the NBA Finals and NBA Fastbreak. He also has hosted a number of ESPN game shows, including Stump the Schwab and Dream Job, and hosted David Blaine's Drowned Alive special.
Scott lives with his wife Kim and his two daughters in Avon, Connecticut. Stuart was injured on April 3, 2002 in New York Jets mini-camp when he was doing a special for ESPN. Towards the end of a day at camp against the coach's advice, Stuart was hit in the eye by a football thrown from a football throwing machine (Andrew "2.0" Dimetrosky). He underwent surgery the day of the injury and was out of work for a few months.
Appendectomy
Scott had an emergency appendectomy in Pittsburgh after becoming ill while covering the Pittsburgh Steelers–Miami Dolphins Monday Night Football game on November 26, 2007. The surgery also discovered a malignancy that required an additional surgery to remove possibly cancerous tissue. He returned a month later and continued on-air broadcasting during recommended preventive chemotherapy. ESPN President George Bodenheimer said "Stuart is approaching this fight with the same passion and energy we see on air... He knows he has our full support and we look forward to the day where this is all behind him."
