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Howie Schwab, a sports nerd who parlayed his love of statistics into a long stint at ESPN that was most notable for his starring role as the ultimate trivia expert on the game show \u201cStump the Schwab,\u201d died on Saturday in Aventura, Fla. He was 63.<\/p>\n
His death was announced on social media by his wife, Suzie Davie-Schwab. His mother, Dona (Bressner) Schwab, said he was in a hospital being treated for an infection when he died, apparently of a heart attack.<\/p>\n
Mr. Schwab had been at ESPN for 17 years in behind-the-scenes roles as a researcher and producer when he was tapped in 2004 to star in his own show.<\/p>\n
On \u201cStump the Schwab,\u201d three challengers vied to outdo Mr. Schwab in answering questions posed by the host, Stuart Scott<\/a>, in the opening rounds. In the final round \u2014 called the Schwab Showdown \u2014 the best of the three went head to head against him for a $25,000 grand prize. Mr. Schwab almost always won.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the episode that decided the 2005 season\u2019s champion<\/a>, Mr. Schwab entered the studio at the start of the show wearing a red boxing robe, with a woman on each arm; he then doffed the robe, revealing a Derek Jeter jersey, and shadowboxed.<\/p>\n \u201cI am ready to rumble,\u201d he told Mr. Scott.<\/p>\n Mr. Schwab did not look like a typical television star: He was overweight, wore glasses and sported a goatee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In a review of \u201cStump the Schwab\u201d for The New York Times in 2005, Marc Weingarten wrote<\/a>: \u201cThe appeal of the show lies in its carefully cultivated reverse snobbery. Watching Mr. Schwab gun down all comers is a bit like watching Homer Simpson prevail over Ken Jennings, the all-time \u2018Jeopardy!\u2019 champion, in a college quiz bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n The show ran from 2004 to 2006 and was then seen in reruns.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody wants to stump me,\u201d Mr. Schwab told The Tampa Bay Times in 2007<\/a>. \u201cPeople come up and say, \u2018What shoe size was So-and-So in 1941?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Got me.\u2019 See, I don\u2019t know everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The depth and breadth of Mr. Schwab\u2019s sports knowledge translated into providing statistics \u201cthat made sports fans smarter every night, the kind of information really good sports fans could use when talking to other fans who loved sports,\u201d John Walsh, a former executive editor of ESPN, said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n As ESPN\u2019s first staff researcher and then as the manager of its research department, Mr. Schwab contributed to various programs, including \u201cSportsCenter\u201d and \u201cCollege GameDay,\u201d and worked with individual sportscasters. He was particularly close with the college basketball analyst Dick Vitale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Howard Arlen Schwab was born on Sept. 17, 1960, in Brooklyn, and grew up in Baldwin, N.Y., on Long Island. His mother was a high school teacher and administrator, and his father, Theodore, a German immigrant and Holocaust survivor, owned a wholesale photographic accessory business.<\/p>\n Dona Schwab said that as a child Howard \u201cwas a terrible athlete, but he enjoyed playing in the street,\u201d where he was the goalie in street hockey games. At summer camp, he delivered the previous day\u2019s scores to other campers over a loudspeaker.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHe had a photographic memory,\u201d she added. \u201cHe could tell you every seat he sat in for every game he attended.\u201d<\/p>\n At St. John\u2019s University, where he earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in athletic administration, Mr. Schwab wrote for The Torch, the campus newspaper, and broke the news in 1981 that the hotly recruited high school basketball star Chris Mullin was going to play for the university.<\/p>\n