I was sick that day and couldn’t make it to school.

In hindsight I probably could have, but when you’re 8 years old and math starts your morning, a little cold can turn into the plague by the time “Saved by the Bell” reruns come on at 6 a.m.

With my new free pass I curled up in bed with my dad to prepare for a day of recovery, and he turned the TV to ESPN.

Stuart Scott and his self-proclaimed TV wife Rich Eisen were calling baseball highlights as SportsCenter made its infamous daylong loop.

I was hooked.

He was graceful, funny and as cool as the other side of the pillow. It was like watching Tiger tap in for birdie on 16. Stuart Scott made it look so easy even I thought I could go on TV and do what he did. Game recognize game, indeed.

That day I decided I wanted to make a career in the sporting world, with Stuart Scott cheering me along with every “Booyah!” and behind the back dunk call I listened to with the TV permanently perched on SportsCenter. It was a one-sided relationship, with him doing all the talking, but I never minded. He was the sports voice of our generation, so when he talked I listened intently.

Stuart Scott was a trailblazing superstar who vaulted ESPN into the 21st century — part-celebrity, part-journalist, part-groundbreaker. When the afternoon SportsCenter began, it was like watching someone you had always known but never met. Playing sports has always been cool in American culture. Stuart Scott made watching them cool, too.

We lost Scott, 49, on Sunday after a lengthy battle with cancer. The man with more catchphrases than an Internet meme database can talk no more, but his voice undoubtedly lives on in the millions of people he influenced in both his career as a sports anchor and his fight against the deadly disease that ultimately took him from us.

Scott accepted the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the ESPYS this summer and gave a speech that will be remembered with as much reverence and awe as any highlight he ever called at the SportsCenter desk.

In it, the legend discussed his battle with cancer and how it shaped him as a person.

“When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer,” Scott said that night. “You beat cancer by how you live, why you live and in the manner in which you live.”

One of Scott’s favorite catchphrases, one we all remember well, was “You ain’t gotta go home, but you gotta get the heck up out of here!”

Well, Stu, you don’t have to go home, either.

You’re already there.

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Cory Gunkel is a reporter. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, Ext. 178, or by email at cory.gunkel@vicksburgpost.com