It was an emotional night for the legendary Rich Eisen, as he made his return behind the ESPN desk to host “SportsCenter”.

Eisen had worked for ESPN from 1996 to 2003, having anchored SportsCenter alongside the late Stuart Scott for a number of years.

Upon his return to SportsCenter on Monday, Eisen paid tribute to his friend and former colleague as a montage of their highlights together was shown.

After the montage, Eisen got choked up and took a brief moment to compose himself.

‘It’s been a blast being here tonight. But listen, we all know there should be someone else right here, in this chair next to me, right there, as he was for my seven years in the role he referred to as my TV wife,’ Eisen said with tears in his eyes. ‘And that’s my dear late friend, Stuart Scott, who is indeed looking over my shoulder tonight.’

‘I frequently think of Stuart a lot and what he might think of the sports headlines of the day, like, say, Bill Belichick being the head football coach at his beloved school. We used to host SportsCenters after LeBron’s high school games. So what would Stuart think of James still playing at age 40, with 40,000 points?’

‘And with all these new crossing of sports TV streams like say ESPN buying NFL Network and partnering up with my daily show, what would it look like if Stuart sat in with say Ernie (Johnson), (Shaquille O’Neal), Kenny (Smith) and Charles (Barkley) when Inside the NBA comes here to ESPN this fall?’ 

‘I could go on and on because I miss Stuart so very much. He should be in that chair with me, with us tonight.’

Fans showed their support for Eisen being emotional, yet professional.

Eisen has been a fixture in broadcasting for decades, notably becoming the face of NFL Network, which launched in 2002, and was recently acquired by ESPN in a massive blockbuster deal.

As a 30-year old adult, it sent chills down my spine watching Eisen back on ESPN. I remember the days of Eisen and Scott at the anchor desk, highlights the day (and night) highlights all across the world of sports. I can tell that, even at 56, Eisen hasn’t lost a single beat when it comes to anchoring a broadcast show.

It was an honor seeing Eisen host SportsCenter again, and it’s something I hope to see happen again real soon.