Stan Safran, the legendary voice of reason in Pittsburgh sports for the past 50 years, died Monday at the age of 76 in his beloved Pittsburgh.
Safran has been dealing with the effects of cancer and diabetes for the past year.
The Cleveland native arrived in Pittsburgh in the ’70s and became a TV and radio fixture over six decades in western Pennsylvania. He made a name for himself during his time as a sportscaster on WTAE (Channel 4), and became a Pittsburgh icon while co-hosting “SportsBeat” with colleague and friend Jay Yonker.
He continued to work in television while hosting his own daytime show on ESPN Radio until earlier this year, when health issues forced him to step away.
The Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates immediately posted tributes on Twitter.
less, the athleteMark Capoli, Rob Rossi, and Josh Yohey share their memories of the “Godfather” of Pittsburgh sports.
Russian: After leaving West Virginia in May 2000, she immediately jumped into a summer internship followed by a two-year apprenticeship at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. About eight months later, an editor offered me a chance to develop a daily page: a mix of collected short stories, original features, and a few unfamiliar concepts. I was too young to take responsibility, but somehow the page took off and gained an audience.
So, I was flabbergasted when, two months before my contract was up, the same editor told me that I wouldn’t be hired full-time and that the page would be taken over by someone else.
Another editor, in an effort to help me fit in somewhere else, has put together an informational tour of my final weeks. He asked me if there was a local show I wanted to appear on.
It was an easy question to answer.
By August 2002, Safran was already a legendary figure in Pittsburgh. He was the lead sportscaster for a local ABC affiliate. He has written columns for the newspaper. He has hosted a talk show. He pioneered a cable TV show called “SportsBeat” which was a TV set as the lead in the Pirates and Penguins games.
Most importantly – to me, anyway – he educated an entire region on hockey in the late 1980s and early 1990s by interviewing the likes of Mario Lemieux, Paul Coffey and countless other Penguins players in western Pennsylvania homes via TV and radio. I knew I couldn’t play like these guys, but I thought there was a chance I could do what Stan did: be around the Penguins and report on their highs, lows and personalities.
So I asked that editor, “May I do Safran’s radio show?”
A week later, I did. Despite his stardom, he treated me as an equal and wished me well.
It was the first of many on and off air conversations with Stan, who has become a friend. We eventually bonded over a mutual love of tennis and black-and-white movies, and I soon learned that the Pittsburgh sports-media legend was an even more legendary person: genuine, generous, dedicated, smart, funny, and just so kind.
Over the past fifteen years, Stan has become known as the “Godfather” of Pittsburgh sports media. It was an appropriate nickname.
He already missed it. But he will never be forgotten.
cantilever: I thought Safran was crazy…or at least a little goofy.
I sat with him inside the Steelers media room a couple of months ago. His health was deteriorating noticeably for everyone except perhaps him. I would never miss an opportunity to stop and talk to Stan, usually about sports.
But not this time.
I didn’t care whether he thought Matt Canada would return for another season or whether General Manager Omar Khan would put his stamp on the team during the offseason. I wanted to know how he was doing, how he was feeling—or, as I said, “You’re hanging in there?” He was somewhat obliging, but the subject didn’t interest him much. Then he paused, stared straight into my eyes and said, “I’ll never retire. No way. Never.”
I shook my head and thought, “You’re crazy. I’d be somewhere on an island if I were you.”
At the time, I thought he was crazy. This man had done everything imaginable on the Pittsburgh media scene for nearly half a century. He had more health problems than anyone could imagine, and he worried about still being allowed to talk on the radio for two hours or do the Steelers postgame show that sometimes ran into the morning.
I didn’t understand. I really didn’t.
Thinking more and more about that conversation with him over the past few days, after word got out that he had been moved into hospice care and it was only a matter of time (his words, not mine) before he left us, it all started to make sense.
He worked his way into this business with talent, sure, but more than that, he did it with grit, grit, and old-fashioned hard work.
That was Stan.
He loved sports, he loved work and he loved people. Being a radio host, the studio host and local sportscaster has allowed him to do whatever he loves in one fell swoop. He loved talking about sports with anyone and everyone, and he wasn’t about to let cancer take away from him. He wasn’t going to let the shoes that showed up with him every now and then stop him.
This was a guy who went on air shortly after brain surgery, had open-heart surgery and back surgery – do you really think losing a finger or two or fighting cancer scared him? of course not.
He was on his way, and that was with a microphone in one hand and a leather briefcase in the other. how could you no respect a man like that?
This is why across social media people are pouring out their hearts about a man many of them have never met – he was highly respected and did things the right way.
Don’t get me wrong. Stan loved what he was able to bring to the Pittsburgh media scene, and who can blame him? About four years ago, I got the idea to do a 10th anniversary cable-style SportsCenter-like program called SportsBeat.
Stan was everything. “SportsBeat” was his kid, and he was just as happy as I was when I called the show as a high school senior for a mock NFL Draft.
Stan had old photos, stories, and info waiting for me. I was surprised it didn’t help me write it. He was like a proud dad, and rightfully so, because it was a show that was ahead of its time. He later told me how devastated he was when “SportsBeat” got cancelled. He started choking when he said that, and I started crying too.
Stan meant so much to be there for the city.
This is why he will never retire. He felt he owed us.
But do you know “stoch”? You didn’t owe us anything.
We owe you – and we will forever owe you.
Rest in peace, my friend. You’ve got it.
Yohei: I talked to Stan quite a bit during his final weeks. He was texting me, wanting to talk about Kyle Dupas, the great Buccaneers season or tennis, which he loved so much. Then, no matter what, he would ask how I was doing.
He was the man with cancer, the man whose body diabetes had ravaged. But he wanted to know how I was feeling. That’s the kind of person Stan was.
By the way, I always felt better when I heard his voice, that way back far before I knew him and considered him a friend. I think I speak for Pittsburgh when I say that.
When the Pirates lost to the Braves in Game 7 of the NLCS in 1992, an entire town watched “SportsBeat” the next night because Stan would make us feel better. We all watched. Any time there was a heartbreaking loss, this is what we did. Back in January, Stan hosted the Steelers postgame show on the Steelers Radio Network. I have no clue if the ratings are higher after wins or losses, but I assure you, fans are going through it with the added need that Stan will make them feel better. We take sports very seriously in Pittsburgh. Stan understood that and was always there to keep our spirits up.
Stan was a man of incredible talents: a great television presence, a calm radio voice, an excellent writer, a great broadcaster, and a top-notch journalist. He was incredibly smart, even if his self-deprecation suggested otherwise. Stan arrives in Pittsburgh during a very different era, when substance was everything. He has adapted to the times but has not changed who he is. As the decades passed and esports players and analytical minds transcended the industry, Stan would still calmly tell us what he thought, listen seriously to what we said, and then form honest conclusions about what was best.
That was Stan, the real people’s man.
For many years, I’ve had the privilege of joining Stan for a segment of his show at 12:20 noon every Wednesday. It was my favorite part of the week. For 20 minutes, I can talk to Stan about hockey. What could be better than that? He always texted me before the show to remind me of my part. Like I forget I was going on air with him.
I will think of Stan at 12:20pm every Wednesday for the rest of my life. A Cleveland man has become very proud of his Pittsburgh. Along the way, he truly became one of us.
Pittsburgh sports wouldn’t be the same without him but they will always be better because of him. He always made us think. He always listened to what we had to say. Made us laugh. And tonight he made us cry.
I love the show, Stan.
(Photo courtesy of KDKA)
“Student. Incurable problem solver. Amateur baconaholic. Introvert. Infuriatingly humble music fanatic.”