Howie Schwab, a longtime ESPN producer and host of “Stump the Schwab,” died Saturday, the network announced. He was 63.

Schwab worked for the company for 26 years before spending time at Fox Sports. In the early years of ESPN’s now-famous show “First Take,” Schwab often appeared as a guest.

Schwab rose to prominence with the trivia show “Stump the Schwab,” which ran from 2004 to 2006. During the show, Schwab would face off against sports fans in a trivia contest. In 2020, Schwab told The Athletic he had a 64-16 record across the show’s 80 episodes.

“I’m proud of that. Eighty percent is pretty darn good,” he said of his winning percentage on the show. “There were a couple of times when people were better. I’ll admit it. I had no problem with it. I remember one time I was disappointed because this guy was a cocky SOB who beat me and it bothered me a little. Bottom line is I’ve lived through so many things in sports and I’ve always been into sports, so (getting stumped) was fine.”

So sad to learn of the passing of my loyal dedicated buddy ⁦@howieschwab⁩ – he was recently at my home . Had various health issues but was feeling good when he visited .May he please RIP pic.twitter.com/mbkiZ9h5cg

— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) April 20, 2024

Schwab’s impact on the industry

Growing up a sports-loving, mostly unathletic kid in the ’90s and early 2000s, ESPN was the primary source of entertainment in my life.

The anchors on “SportsCenter” not only told you what happened during the games. They taught you how to be funny when talking about those games. Stuart Scott, Dan Patrick, Linda Cohn and Chris Berman were my Avengers (trust me, I know how nerdy that sounds).

For me, what was happening in the remote outpost of Bristol, Conn., was more magical than anything Disney World could offer. There was something confounding about it all. Wait, there’s a place I could work, where everyone loves sports as much as I do? And they talk about it all day?

No one better represented that ethos of “I LOVE SPORTS” than Schwab.

GO DEEPER

Catching up with Howie Schwab, the man ESPN turned into a trivia star

ESPN viewers probably should never have known who Schwab was. He was a TV producer, a behind-the-scenes person who handed the pretty on-air people notes and statistics. But yet there he was, on our TVs, as the star of a show named after him — “Stump the Schwab.”

Seeing Schwab in all his brainy glory was a peek behind the curtain for kids like me who grew up obsessing over ESPN. It revealed the type of people that filled the halls and cubicles of the Worldwide Leader in Sports. Nerds. More specifically, sports nerds.

“Stump the Schwab” ran for only three years but the impact of Schwab’s on-air career far outlived that brief window. In his way, he broke the mold of what type of person got to talk about sports on television. You could be a geek. You didn’t have to be a former athlete. And most importantly — the way you could win was through information, not by speaking the loudest.

Since his passing, remembrances for Schwab poured in from ex-ESPNers like Mike Tirico, Bruce Feldman and Doug Gottlieb. Schwab was so beloved that his kind nature is probably just about the only thing Dan Dakich and Keith Olbermann agree on these days.

There are times today when you watch sports TV talking heads and wonder whether they even like the sports they’re talking about. Schwab was the antithesis of that. He represented a joyfulness and pure love of sports that is more connected to the everyday fan. Rest easy, Schwab, and keep stumping those competitors during trivia night in the great beyond. — Mike Smeltz, executive producer

Required reading

(Photo: Mike Windle / Getty Images for ESPN)