ESPN anchor Randy Scott had some sad news to announce when he appeared on Monday’s edition of SportsCenter. He announced that his dear colleague at ESPN died just days before Christmas. Zach Jones passed away at 41.
He had worked 15 years with EPSN. He died on Sunday after a two year battle with colorectal cancer, leaving behind a wife and 10-year-old son. The devastating death combined with the timing was a bit too much for Scott to completely hold it together. Although no one would blame him for breaking down in tears, Scott maintained his professionalism as he delivered the news
Still, you can hear the heartbreak and emotional in his voice as he described losing one of their own.
“ESPN lost one of our own yesterday. Research manager Zach Jones died Sunday after a two-year fight with colorectal cancer that had metastasized before his diagnosis,” he said. “You may have never seen him on your screens, but you saw his work on our live golf coverage, on our women’s college basketball coverage or on any of our SportsCenter shows.”
Scott continued, “He came here in 2010 as a researcher and joined the management team of the stats and information group in 2018, but more important than that… he got married here. He started a family here.”
Scott then turned his attention to Zach’s family, saying, “The Stanford graduate loved the Cardinal and he loved golf. He loved his wife Amber, he loved his son Silas, who turned 10 last month – and he lost his dad three days before Christmas.”
Scott revealed that he just saw Zach a few weeks ago.
“I saw Zach in the cafeteria just a couple of weeks ago, he was hopeful and he was also reflective,” he added. “He said he just wanted his family to be ok after a recent move to Texas. He fought like hell. He gets to rest now. We love you buddy.”
