Building a Brand

A lifelong passion for sports along with a penchant for storytelling helped turn Newy Scruggs ’23 EMBA into one of the most recognizable figures in Dallas-Fort Worth media.

“Who could have imagined that an Army kid born in Wiesbaden, Germany, would have the life, career and adventure that Newy Scruggs has had?” Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said about the longtime sports director at NBC 5 (KXAS-TV).

Scruggs grew up near North Carolina’s Fort Bragg, renamed Fort Liberty in 2023. As his father rose through the ranks of the U.S. Army, his mother shuttled the kids to various practices, competitions and team events. Young Newy competed in baseball, basketball, tennis and swimming.

“I’ve always loved sports,” Scruggs said. “Nothing interested me more.”

Newy Scruggs interviews TCU quarterback Kenny Hill ’19 after the Frogs beat South Dakota State in September 2016. Photo by Leo Wesson

Throughout his childhood, Scruggs logged hours in the local library, poring over all the sports magazines he could find along with business and more general publications ranging from Black Enterprise to GQ. The articles he read planted seeds on how to grip readers, how to tell a tale.

Scruggs put that all to use in a broadcasting career that has taken him from South Carolina to Southern California. His three decades in sports journalism have seen him rise through the ranks on camera and behind the scenes.

Jones isn’t surprised by Scruggs’ ongoing success.

“His warmth and charm are immediately obvious, but then you quickly and clearly get a sense of his ability to connect and communicate in such an engaging and captivating way,” Jones said. “You combine that with his magnetic personality, and it’s easy to see why he’s become a leader in his field.”

Strong Start

The competition, the personal triumphs and the drama associated with athletics at every level captured Scruggs’ imagination from an early age. Feedback from teachers, starting in elementary school, burnished his confidence as a student and communicator.

He earned an academic scholarship to Pembroke State University. The school, which was founded with a mission to educate Native American teachers, changed its name to the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in the mid-1990s. As a broadcast major, he quickly learned how comfortable he was wielding a microphone, though Scruggs had a brief flirtation with business.

Newy Scruggs interviews coach Richard Brown III, the first African American Master PGA Professional, for an NBC 5 feature. Courtesy of Newy Scruggs.

“But I took one business class and thought, ‘Oh, man, that is a lot of math,’ ” he said. “At that time, I wasn’t in the mood to challenge myself.”

As a junior, NewDawg, as his college friends called him, began reporting on sports for the CBS affiliate in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He was soon promoted to weekend sports anchor, but he never lost sight of his family’s aspirations for him to earn a degree.

Scruggs spent more than an hour and a half commuting each way between the campus and the TV station. To the delight of his parents, who still live in Fayetteville, North Carolina, their son finished his coursework in June 1993. Newy became the first in his family to graduate from college, though his dad followed. He proudly talks about how his sister was the first of their tight-knit unit to earn a graduate school diploma.

“My dad had wanted to be a lawyer,” Scruggs said of Albert “Chief” Scruggs Jr., who, as a teenager in 1963, marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham, Alabama. Scruggs grew up hearing stories of how police sprayed his dad and other peaceful protesters with fire hoses that day.

Scruggs recalled his father’s concern about a Black man trying to succeed in sports broadcasting. In 1975, Bryant Gumbel broke barriers as the first Black person — outside of professional athletes — to become an on-air sports reporter when he began covering the NFL for NBC. Years later, however, local role models did not abound.

Scruggs said he reassured his dad he was all in for broadcast journalism. “At that point in my life I was ready to focus on building my career.”

On the Move

Despite his love for the Atlantic Coast — he named the eldest of his three daughters Savannah — Scruggs jumped at a full-time sports reporting position at the ABC affiliate in Austin, Texas, in 1993. He said that being dispatched to North Texas to cover the Dallas Cowboys was his favorite part of the job. Reporting on the Cowboys after they’d just won back-to-back Super Bowls, Scruggs at the ripe age of 22 felt like his career was transforming into a dream.

“We’re fortunate to have Newy as part of the Cowboys media family here,” Jones said. “His talent is rare, and his expertise and skills in providing perspective are so strong.”

Scruggs moved to Cleveland in December 1994 for an opportunity to anchor again. Despite working in the sports-obsessed city at pivotal points, including when the Browns’ owner negotiated an NFL franchise move to Baltimore, he jokes that he lasted only two winters in Ohio.

In March 1996, Scruggs headed west for a reporting and weekend anchor job at KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, then a UPN station. A year and a half later, he also began co-hosting an afternoon drive sports show on the radio in LA.

The TV station soon made him the main weeknight sports anchor. The 60- to 70-hour weeks behind the microphone and on camera didn’t bother him, Scruggs said. He was building a brand before the concept became ubiquitous.

“I was in my late 20s, working all the time, bought a house and loved the LA lifestyle,” he said. “I loved everything about LA.” Scruggs, who thrives on covering professional teams, appreciated the opportunities in the country’s No. 2 media market.

He was reluctant to accept an anchoring and reporting job in North Texas at NBC 5 in 2000, but the chance to work for a network-owned station proved irresistible. Though Scruggs said it took a few years before he felt like he was a fit for the Texas culture, viewers embraced him from the start.

“The moment is never too big for Newy. He’s the quarterback of our team.”
Pat Doney

“In a medium that puts a premium on likability, on that elusive quality that makes you want to invite a local news anchor into your media room, Scruggs has entrenched himself because he seems like the dude you can argue with at the bar,” wrote Eric Celeste in a 2004 Dallas Observer story titled “The Newy Factor.”

Scruggs has now called NBC 5, these days located in the shadow of the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, home for nearly a quarter century. The staff he oversees consists of a weekend sports anchor and reporter, a producer and a photographer. Scruggs considers himself a hands-off manager. “I trust my people to get the job done.”

He also enjoys stepping out from behind the anchor desk to cover events in the field. Two professional highlights took him to Arizona: the Fiesta Bowl, when TCU beat Michigan on New Year’s Eve in 2022, and the Texas Rangers’ defeat of the Arizona Diamondbacks to win the 2023 World Series.

“The moment is never too big for Newy,” said Pat Doney, the other NBC 5 sports anchor and reporter. “He’s the quarterback of our team.”

Throughout his career, Scruggs has also hosted various radio programs. In April 2012, his national sports radio show, Voices of the Game With Newy Scruggs, premiered on NBC Sports Radio. His rotating lineup of guest co-hosts included Chipper Jones, the Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame third baseman, and Bobby Valentine, former manager of the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox and New York Mets.

Though he’s currently on a break from radio, he appreciates the flexibility of the medium. A radio show can last hours in contrast to the time he’s allotted during the sports segment of a typical TV newscast, which has shrunk to just a few minutes during the prime 10 p.m. newscast.

For his work in TV, Scruggs has collected 15 Emmys, including one for a segment titled “Gary Patterson Gets Emotional About TCU Football,” which aired in early 2023. The interview was the first time the former head coach spoke on the record about parting company with the university.

Back to School

The evolving nature of broadcast news partly spurred Scruggs to pursue an Executive MBA at the Neeley School of Business. Not only is he typically given less time for sports in the nightly lineups than even a few years ago, he’s seen alternative media, including YouTube and TikTok, gain ground. The shifting media landscape made Scruggs even more committed to expanding his horizons.

Newy Scruggs moderates a “TCU Presents” discussion with Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. and President Daniel W. Pullin at the Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU. Photo by James Anger

“At this point, there’s no advancement in my job,” Scruggs said. “Getting my MBA was for me, more than anything, about having the toolbox in case the job went away.”

Pursuing an advanced degree, he said, also helped him fight stagnation.

“Newy brought a contagious energy and enthusiasm to the classroom,”said Ray Smilor, emeritus professor of professional practice in management, entrepreneurship and leadership at Neeley. “He was always prepared, always engaged and ready to listen and to share a perspective, which enlivened the class and made him a sounding board for the other students.

His return to school, though, presented its own set of challenges. Scruggs turned to his daughters, teenagers Sierra and Sophie in addition to Savannah, for help with basic computer skills, such as creating a spreadsheet or PowerPoint presentation. He brushed up on math, too.

“Newy’s famous line is, ‘You have to do what the game asks you to do,’ ” Doney said. “He’s a great leader who knows how to get things done.”

Scruggs said he loved collaborating on projects with his fellow students. During his cohort’s several-week stint in Portugal and Spain, the group contrasted the business ideas viable in Europe with those more effective in the U.S. He wasn’t afraid to disagree with his teammates.

The exercise, and others throughout his experience at Neeley, made him focus far more on the end user — the viewer when it comes to broadcast TV.

“We constantly do experiential exercises at Neeley,” Smilor said, “and Newy proved that he could think on his feet, but at the same time he went out of his way to make others feel comfortable in that environment.”

“The Neeley school gave me confidence that has made me better at my job,” Scruggs said. “It was a tremendous education for me.”