For those of us that knew Stan Savran well, news of his death Monday at age 76 was an emotional blow.
And when I say “for those of us that knew Stan Savran well,” I mean all of us in Pittsburgh.
We all knew him well.
Not just those of us that worked with him at iHeartRadio or AT&T SportsNet.
I mean … you. You, reading this right now.
If you took the time to click on this story to read about Stan, you knew who he was. Because the guy you saw on your television, the guy you heard on your radio, that was the Stan I knew too.
Maybe you never got to meet Stan in person. Although, over parts of six decades in town as a Pittsburgh sports broadcasting icon, many of you did.
If I had a dollar for every “Ya know, I met Stan this one time, and he was a super nice guy. I was leaving a Penguins game once and …” story I’ve been told, I would’ve retired and moved to Hawaii a long time ago.
Betcha they were all true.
Franco Harris used to joke that if there were as many people really at Three Rivers Stadium as there were people who told him they were in attendance for the Immaculate Reception, then that building would’ve held 200,000 people.
Well, you could double that, and that’s the amount of people who have walked around Pittsburgh over the decades and said, “That Stan Savran is as good a guy in person as he is on air.”
But if you watched him on television or listened to him on the radio at any point since the late 1970s, you understood that truth before you met him anyway. And if you did meet Stan in person, my hunch is, you walked away with exactly the same impression of him in person that you had of him through the TV screen or the radio speaker.
Genuine. Kind. Welcoming.
The whole “Stan, Guy, love the show!” bit with callers to “SportsBeat” for 17 years with him and Guy Junker was legit. People adored them both.
Related
• Pittsburgh’s teams join fans, colleagues in paying tribute to Stan Savran
It needs to be said, Junker’s devotion to Savran as a colleague was never more apparent than behind the scenes as Stan was in his final days. Guy ostensibly ran point for all of us in the Pittsburgh media as a conduit to make sure his family knew who was coming, and when, to pay their final respects.
And there were many.
Many.
Stan worked until the very last day he could. His fights against diabetes and lung cancer — and various other compounding ailments — had him battling on too many fronts at once. When he couldn’t host his radio show on ESPN Pittsburgh or be on AT&T SportsNet anymore, then he’d call in to the ‘DVE Morning Show or onto Mark Madden’s program on 105.9 The X. Just because he wanted to.
Nobody was making him. There was no obligation. Aside from the one that he felt to his listeners.
To us.
Oh, and because he enjoyed it. Every day. He really liked talking with every single listener and viewer he could reach. Talking sports is what Stan did. And he did enough of that to hang up the microphone and walk away a long time ago.
But talking with all of us is what he loved. So why give up something you love until you have to, right?
Stan never did. He never gave up. He just couldn’t go on forever. None of us can.
Watching Stan in his later years, though, made me wonder if he just might give that notion a good challenge.
Stan, we all loved the show, and everyone loved you.
In the latest podcast, Guy Junker joins Tim Benz to talk about the memory of Pittsburgh sports broadcasting legend Stan Savran.
