Kate Scott had to take this call. She was waiting in Dallas for a connecting flight to Memphis in mid-September 2021. Another airport. Heading to another game. The story of her life, sans a touchstone. She stood there, about three people away from checking in for her flight, when the 215-number popped up on her cell.
She skipped out of line, swiped her screen, and answered with a tepid "Hello?" Her eyes closed, bracing for the cordial rejection she thought was coming. You know the kind: We enjoyed meeting you, best of luck in your career, blah, blah, blah-type of call.
She stood there with her travel bags piled by her feet. She could barely feel the phone in her hand. This was happening. This was really happening. Scott didn’t care whether the passengers walking by noticed her flick a dropping tear with her index finger, assuming she just heard the news of a lost loved one. In many ways, it was, since it marked a rebirth. Only she knew what she endured over the years waiting for this moment, walking in the mist of hopeful fatigue.
About a month prior, she was questioning if this crazy, passionate, unforgiving, unbending pursuit would lead to anything. That she was, in some ways, right back where she started with the early-morning days drifting into an ether of countless bits of opportunity—not one complete puzzle.
Scott had to make sure she heard the voice on the other end of the phone correctly: “We would love for you to be the next voice of the Philadelphia 76ers.”
Since Scott was a five-year-old able to pour milk into her cereal bowl, this was something she never thought she could do. She would plop herself down on the living room sofa when her parents were still asleep and watch SportsCenter, taking in everything from America’s Cup sailing, to bowling, to late-night hoops highlights, while other kids her age were immersed in Saturday morning cartoons.
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Kate Scott’s odyssey to “her perfect” (job) has featured many twists and turns. She once sat for hours deciphering police numbered codes and translated that to traffic reporters sitting in tiny, soundproof closet studios. She lost thousands of hours of sleep, and spent hundreds of hours sleeping in the front seat of a white Toyota Prius to rest between jobs, while building a collection of friends who would eventually turn into an extension of her family — call them her broadcast-journey line.
Scott, 38, is the play-by-play voice of one of the most exciting teams in the NBA—the 76ers. It took being “the first” many times and more than a few gutsy taps on the shoulder to climb her personal career ladder.
She’s an old soul. Speak to her for 10 minutes and you want to speak to her for 10 minutes more, and 10 minutes more after that.
But what makes Kate Scott Kate Scott is her powerful transparency. She’s not afraid to be who she is and feels remarkably comfortable within her own skin.
Whereas many in the media adopt fake personas, writers and broadcasters alike, grabbing that face in the jar by the door before they leave for work, Scott has no pretense.
That confidence in who she is and what she’s about is the foundation of where she is.
The teenaged girl who grew up in Clovis, California, about seven miles northeast of Fresno, was a four-sport star at Clovis High School since her freshman year and is as Philadelphia as it gets.
It comes from being incredibly authentic. She’s as strong as her voice.
“That’s what Kate is and it’s what I always liked about her,” said boxing Hall of Fame announcer Barry Tompkins, who Scott sought out for early career advice and the two, having never met before, spoke for three hours over lunch. “Being a star is not important to Kate. Being professional is. She had some trepidation about going to Philadelphia, knowing how tough Philadelphia sports fans can be.
“Kate may have had a little trepidation about it, but Kate never lacked confidence about it. Talk about a tough job. I know what it’s like. I went from San Francisco to New York; that was a real change. In San Francisco, sports are important, but it’s not World War III. In New York, if I didn’t show New York Rangers’ highlights, it was the wrath of God.
“That’s what I admire the most about Kate. She has confidence in herself, still with room to grow. Mostly, she’s the authentic article and she’s not afraid to be who she is. I give Kate a ton of credit. None of this surprises me. It wouldn’t shock me if Kate is in Philly for 25 years.”
None of this would have happened if Scott didn’t get a friendly nudge outside the activities office at Clovis High School her junior year when she was submitting her college applications.
Planting the seed
Ed Schmalzel is currently the principal of Clovis Adult School. Back in the late-1990s and early-2000s, though, he was a high school activities director. Scott wanted to go into education, like her mother, Maggie, a special-ed teacher. A lot of her friends were going into teaching. Kate wanted to have a positive impact.
Schmalzel saw something else. He knew she loved sports. She was not blessed with the most athleticism, though she was able to squeeze out every drop of ability she had.
Schmalzel related a story of Scott’s basketball playing days. Scott, who played basketball (badly, she jokes), tennis, soccer and competed in track and field at Clovis High, was often tasked with doing the nasty work no one else likes to do on a basketball court or soccer field.
In one instance, Schmalzel recalled, Scott was assigned the charge of guarding the leading scorer of the opposing team. Scott was frustrating the hell out of the girl, who was clearly more talented. Kate stayed with her. Their legs tangled scrambling for a loose ball. The girl fell on Scott’s head and the two slid for about eight feet, using Kate’s head as a surfboard.
Scott bounced up as if nothing had happened, and got into her opponent’s grill with a smile.
It personified Scott.
“That’s Kate,” Schmalzel said. “I saw she loved sports; she was always able to make everyone around her better. It’s why all of the coaches wanted her for their teams.”
She was the sports editor of the Clovis High newspaper. She was on the mic leading cheers for the Friday night football games. She was the public address announcer for the boys soccer team. When she wasn’t playing soccer, she was refereeing soccer on the weekends with her father Fred.
“It’s why I suggested Kate think about being a sports journalist,” Schmalzel said. “Her father gives me constant updates on what she’s doing, and I bet you she probably doesn’t know it. Success hasn’t changed Kate. She’s had such an impact on me and my family, and she’s phenomenal with my kids.
“We used to ask Kate about dating when she came back from college, and we would joke that Aaron Rodgers was her boyfriend. She would spend summers with us during summer camp. She finally told us that she was gay, and a part of me was so proud of her that she could trust me and my family with that.
“The other part of me—and the impact she had on me—was thinking what could I have done differently that she could have been honest with me years ago. I get emotional about it to this day. It absolutely changed me. What other high school kids could I make feel that it’s okay to be themselves. It changed my life and my whole family.
“Kate is a part of my family. She’s a part of a lot of people’s families. I can’t say how proud I am of her. She’s like a big sister to my kids.”
A torn meniscus her junior year ended her soccer career. She was a little lost 16-year-old who had identified with being an athlete. Once she got to the University of California, Berkeley, a harsh reality set in.
“I remember going to a Cal soccer game and I had to leave at halftime because it was so painful,” recalled Kate, who fit in nicely with a nerdy group at Cal, called the Rally Committee. It was the Cal equivalent to Duke’s Cameron Crazies, what with their blue-and-gold long sleeved rugby shirts and khaki pants. These were students like her, ending their sports journey in high school, and evolving to the next phase of their lives, but not losing their interest in sports.
At Cal, they have cheerleaders called, “Mic Men,” two to four guys in khaki pants and denim button-down shirts and blue-and-gold striped ties that lead cheers at football and basketball games. Scott loved doing that at Clovis. She auditioned at Cal to be a “Mic Man” for the student section, which would either boo you off the platform or accept you.
As a sophomore, she became Cal’s first female “Mic Man,” leading cheers in the student section for football games. Scott also began taking steps in the direction she wanted. She would intern where she could, when she met Paul Aldridge.
Scott tapped Aldridge on the shoulder at halftime at a Cal basketball game and asked if he needed any interns. He was a one-man media crew, producing the Cal Sports Report, and could use all the help he could get. It’s what led Kate to her first appearances on TV.
Aldridge, 58, is no longer in sports TV, which he did for most of his life, and now is a café and bar owner.
“I knew Kate had a lot of charisma as a yell leader and we needed a student correspondent, and that’s how it started,” Aldridge said. “I thought Kate right off the bat was a hard worker and she wanted to learn. I also liked the fact that Kate was willing to take risks.
“Anyone that knew Kate at Cal, you could tell she was the first-ever female yell leader and she had a quality that people gravitated towards. Kate is a trailblazer and a groundbreaker everywhere she’s been, so this success in Philadelphia doesn’t surprise me at all. She’s never been afraid to step into what had been a male-dominated field.”
In 2005, Scott graduated from Cal with a degree in communications and her first post-college job for the first six months was working at a restaurant and a winery. Her parents were a little concerned. Kate assured them that when she made the plunge into her preferred career, it was going to be nonstop full throttle.
“I told my parents not to worry, because I knew what they were thinking, ‘Why did we pay for an expensive college for her to pour wine and serve eggs Benedict in Berkeley?’” recalled Scott, laughing. “I told them to trust me, because it was going to be a grind for a very long time.”
Little did she realize.
The rise up
Scott started in radio as a traffic producer for Metro Networks off air. Her job consisted of sitting in front of a computer, monitoring the California Highway Patrol (CHiPs) radio traffic and deciphering their numbered code when someone called in an accident. Scott translated that to the traffic reporters to read over the air.
“I used to think to myself how will I ever transition this into sports, but it worked out,” Scott said.
A few years later, Scott started filling in as a traffic reporter, but everyone knew she wanted to get into sports. As her wife Nicole was finishing grad school, Kate felt the move was right to start sending out her radio sports updates reel. She was in serious discussions with 680 The Fan in Atlanta, when a sports anchor position opened at KNBR-AM (San Francisco), the radio flagship of the Giants, 49ers and Golden State Warriors.
It’s also the station Kate grew up listening to. As she auditioned for KNBR for three months, she continued to work her afternoon and evening traffic shifts, because she wanted to make sure she got one job before leaving another.
“My wife wasn’t real happy about those hours,” said Kate with a laugh. “Everyone always asks me what my break was, and I tell them I haven’t had one. It was always growing in little steps as a broadcaster and trying to figure out what that next step would be. Very few people in broadcasting get a big break.
“I didn’t know anyone in the broadcasting industry. I wasn’t a college athlete. I was in this tiny box doing traffic, and everyone else I knew that was 25 was out getting drunk and having a good time. I was typing in CHP codes in San Francisco at 10 o’clock on Friday nights and you start to think, ‘What am I doing with my life?’”
By 2011, she was full time at KNBR-AM, and allowed to speak during both morning shows. She also served as the television sideline reporter for the San Jose Earthquakes, sideline reporter for the San Jose Giants and she began anchoring Saturday sports for the local NBC affiliate at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. She was working six days a week and many times seven.
In 2015, Odele Hawkins, who owns her own consulting firm, CAMAVELE, was then the Senior Director of On-Air Talent and Development for the PAC-12 Network. She saw talent in Scott. It was Hawkins who took Scott off radio and put her on TV. Scott sheepishly introduced herself to Hawkins at the PAC-12’s Women In Sports Entertainment (WISE) event.
By then, Scott had built a following.
“Kate told me that she wanted to reach out to me, and I told her, ‘What have you been waiting for?'” Hawkins remembered. “Kate was so engaging, and so smart. My thing about hiring on-air talent is that they do their research and what’s the story behind these kids.
“I knew Kate would dive deep and do the work. We started her in soccer, and we moved Kate over to basketball and she was the first woman on the PAC-12 Network to call football.”
Scott started working at the PAC-12 Network in 2015 and started full time in 2017, which overlapped with her commitment at KNBR (from 2011 to 2017). Wherever there was a need at the PAC-12 Network, Scott would fill it. How she managed to stay awake? That’s another story. She was still working at KNBR, getting up at 3 in the morning, arriving at the station by 4 a.m. for show prep, and going from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Heaven was the front seat of her white Toyota Prius. She would go out to the station parking lot, pull a blanket over her head and sleep for 90 minutes. The PAC-12 Network was 20 minutes away. She would arrive there, still a little groggy from her nap, change her clothes and anchor halftime shows. Her day would end around 10 or 11 p.m. For roughly three years, she was getting four hours sleep a night.
“I just wanted this so badly that I had to fight for it,” Scott said. “I started putting all of my chips into my play-by-play.”
As her reputation grew and as she spread her reels, more work came her way.
Something, though, had to give.
“I loved KNBR, but I knew I had to give up radio if I wanted to do play-by-play,” Scott said. “I did what was needed, when I was needed, but I was hoping to get the attention of a national network. I flew out to Brooklyn, New York, to stay with my good friend Kate (Fagan, former 76ers beat writer for The Inquirer).
“I borrowed her car to drive up to Stamford, Connecticut, to introduce myself to one of the bigwigs at NBC. I wanted them to put a face to the name. Two days later, I was asked to send a reel to them to do some Atlantic 10 women basketball games.
“It was a dream of mine to call the Olympics, and what better network to get in with than the network that airs them.”
She would commute from San Francisco to Massachusetts for A-10 games, and then she received a call in January 2020, thinking it was for the Tokyo Olympics.
It wasn’t the Olympic call.
It was Elyse Noonan, the NBC Sports Vice-President of Talent Development & Negotiations, calling to say she received Kate’s Christmas card and that they had an idea to throw at her — an all-female broadcast crew on International Women’s Day calling an NHL game on March 8, 2020, between the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center in Chicago.
Then the world shut down on March 12, 2020, due to COVID-19. Scott was in Las Vegas when she heard. The PAC-12 shut down. Everything shut down. Paychecks were zapped. It was a scary time that she survived, and in October 2020, Kate went back to her radio roots, this time as a host of the morning show relaunch on 95.7 “The Game” KGMZ-FM.
“There were a lot of questions,” Scott said. “It was a really difficult time, because I was thinking, ‘I worked my ass off for so many years and now I feel that I’m back at the start again,’ working mornings, running to another job (without enough time in the day to breathe).
“I appreciated what I was doing. But I was questioning a lot. I put my wife through a lot. I put my family through a lot. I started to really question if I could do this, and then in March 2021, I got another call from NBC, the national network.”
NBC wanted her to call non-American men’s and women’s hoops at the Tokyo Olympics off monitor from Stamford.
Again, something had to go.
“My bosses at 95.7 began to realize this wasn’t sustainable. Between calling Copa America and Gold Cup soccer for FOX and everything else, it was too thin for me, and too thin for them,” Scott said. “I worked with some amazing bosses there at 95.7. They asked me what ‘my perfect’ looked like. I thanked them. I told them I wanted to be a play-by-play announcer; that’s what lights my soul on fire.
“We figured something out. They were great, because a lot of bosses could have said I was under contract and tough luck. I was getting calls left and right and I couldn’t say no, because it was my dream.”
The morning Scott left for Stamford to call the Olympics, she got a call from the 76ers. She did a Zoom interview with Shawn Oleksiak, Vice President/Executive Producer of Live Events for NBC Sports Philadelphia.
“I had the Zoom and I was completely myself and relaxed, because I didn’t think there was a chance in heck that they would hire some chick from California to be the next voice of the Philadelphia 76ers,” Scott said. “We had a great conversation and I bought into being 100 percent myself. I was totally relaxed. I asked if I move on in the process, what the next steps were.
“Shawn told me I was moving on already, and I went and called the Olympics.”
In August 2021, the Sixers called back. Kate was set to call 13 weeks of college football for Learfield that fall, when she received a call from NBC Sports Philly about coming out to audition with Marc Jackson, because Alaa Abdelnaby was sick.
Scott arrived in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021. She showed up at the NBC Sports Philadelphia studios on the morning of Thursday, Aug. 26, and called an open, and different segments of a game. That afternoon she flew back to San Francisco, with her first full season of football play-by-play less than a week away. She dove back into her prep, because on Friday, Sept. 4, she had to go to Houston for the start of football season.
A few weeks later, Scott saw a 215 number in a Dallas airport … “I thought this was going to be the call, ‘We enjoyed meeting you, best of luck in your career.’ I thought I was going to be rejected. I was thinking Shawn is rather cheery for a reject call.
“I didn’t think anyone would have the balls to hire a woman full time. I know it’s 2022, but I didn’t think anyone would hire a woman full time to call their games.”
And ugliness followed her from the West Coast to Philadelphia.
“Here’s the thing, of all the nasty messages I’ve gotten here, they’re the same as the first messages that I got at KNBR. They haven’t changed, so all of the things I have done up to this point prepared me for this. I knew that there were going to be people telling me to get back in the kitchen and make a sandwich and that I was a c--t, and a s**t, and f-----g f-----t.
“I think of whatever things you want to say, I got it. It’s why I pushed back when people said Philly is a tough market. I got the same stuff since I started in San Francisco in 2011 as a sports update anchor. There are awful people everywhere. The internet makes it very easy for people to be anonymously awful. But, I’m so thankful that I knew the only choice I had was to deal with the challenges.
“This was going to be my path. The challenges were going to be there. Could I deal with it? I asked myself if I was ready for it. I knew it was going to be hard. My favorite movie is ‘A League of Their Own,’ and one of my favorite lines comes when Tom Hanks’ character tells Geena Davis’ character, ‘It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.’
“It’s been a great adventure. I have a great group of trusted friends, some in the industry, some outside, who help me keep my head up when they knew that some of the things I got tore me down. They keep telling me these people don’t know you. Put your head down and keep working. They’re either going to get on board, or they’re going to figure out that they’re wrong.”
There are some women in sports broadcasting who have been handed things. There are many, many, many men in sports broadcasting who have been handed things.
Kate Scott was handed nothing.
“That was my goal: I want to be a play-by-play broadcaster, who just happens to be a woman,” Scott said. “That’s what makes this extra-special. I feel like I’ve come home.”
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who has been writing for PhillyVoice since its inception in 2015 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.