Howie Schwab, a longtime ESPN producer and statistician and star of the popular 2000s game show “Stamp the Schwab,” died Saturday at the age of 63.
“SportsCenter” aired a tribute to Schwab on its Saturday morning show. ESPN college basketball analyst Dick Vitale also shared the news on social media. He said Schwab was battling “various health issues.” The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
“So sad to learn of the passing of my loyal and devoted friend @howieschwab. He was at my house recently,” Vitale wrote. “He had a variety of health issues, but he felt good when he visited.”
Schwab has spent most of his time at ESPN behind the scenes since joining the company in 1987. But in 2004, Stamp the Schwab, hosted by the late Stuart Scott, debuted. Contestants competed against each other in sports trivia. The final challenge was to defeat Schwab, who had quickly established himself as an authority on every sport of every era.
The show ran for four seasons and was last aired in 2006.
Schwab also appeared early on “First Take” ranking his expectations for that weekend’s sporting events on a “bag of chips” scale of 1 to 5.
ESPN parted ways with Schwab in 2013, and he joined Fox Sports, where he served as a writer and consultant for “Sports Jeopardy!”
