Whether you’re a sports fan or not, everyone recognizes the three Heisman statues poised in front of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at UF.
Three men who left their mark on the Swamp. All around campus there are banners, plaques and framed pictures commemorating outstanding members of the Gator Nation for their athletic, academic and professional accomplishments.
Every national and conference championship, every award-winning individual enshrined for Gators past, present and future to look up to and take note of.
For those of us at the College of Journalism and Communications, Edward Aschoff was one of those people.
The ESPN college football reporter and UF alumnus passed away on Dec. 24 -- his 34th birthday -- from complications with pneumonia and HLH (a rare overactive immune disorder), according to ESPN and his fiancée, Katy Berteau.
Aschoff’s diligent reporting and thoughtful writing propelled him through the ranks of the sports media world. He started writing for the Gainesville Sun in 2007, graduated from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications in 2008 and joined ESPN in 2011.
As an Oxford, Mississippi, native and the son of a professor at the University of Mississippi, Aschoff had been surrounded by SEC football since birth. He fell in love with journalism in college. Sportswriting allowed Aschoff to combine the two.
He began writing football features and recruiting updates for GatorBait magazine while at UF. What allowed him to achieve the rest was a whole lot of grit and determination.
While professionally he was a college football aficionado, Aschoff’s sporting interests expanded beyond that. He also followed the Carolina Panthers, Anaheim Ducks, Colorado Rockies, Atlanta United FC and the Toronto Raptors. His fandom crossed all boundaries, sporty and nerdy alike. He loved dinosaurs (hence his Raptors allegiance), the Simpsons and Godzilla.
“He really was a nerd, like, he really was,” said Mike McCall, former Alligator sports writer and classmate of Aschoff’s. “He had all sorts of things that he was into. He constantly would always surprise you with what interested him or what he was looking into.”
His obsession with Titanus gojira (better known as Godzilla) transported him from the television set to the big screen when he was cast as an extra in “Godzilla: King of the Monsters.” Aschoff’s fiancée even proposed to him with a Godzilla-themed ring in Dec. 2018. The two were set to be married in New Orleans this April.
Aside from his quirky interests and eccentric sock collection (which included Raptors and Marvel Comics themes), his star quality in the newsroom and in life made him stand out. As told by his peers, he was a master of his craft and a radiant beam of light. His warmth was, and continues to be, felt across the sports media world.
ESPN crews, UF athletic director Scott Stricklin and other media members at the Capital One Orange Bowl wore flower lapels in his memory. The internet has been set ablaze by kind words from Aschoff’s colleagues, carefully penning his legacy in powerful prose and telling tales of his kindness to be permanently archived in the Twitterverse.
While each person’s connection with Aschoff is unique, their sentiments are all very much the same: Edward Aschoff was a great person.
“One of the things since he passed that has been really amazing to see is anytime people post something about him on Twitter or you read an article about him, everybody says that he’s a ray of light, that he’s always positive,” McCall said. “The main thing… the main takeaway that I have as I reflect on the day-to-day stuff from when we were in college: It was just always great to see Ed. It was always great to have Ed around. It’s been pretty remarkable how consistent people have been, in saying that, and that really tells you something.”
While his eminence in journalism took him far, Aschoff’s secret weapon -- that ultimately defines his legacy -- was his aptitude for forging impactful relationships. That is what made him a great reporter. That is what made him a great guy.
“I would say that the most extraordinary thing about Edward was that most students struggle very, very mightily with learning how to develop sources,” former UF adjunct professor Jason Cole recalls about having Aschoff in his class. “They’re scared of how to do it. They’re scared to approach people...Ed was never scared. He was never frightened about getting to know people.”
Uniquely, Aschoff was universally well-liked and respected by his colleagues.
“You don’t hear a lot of other reporters, especially people that you compete with, who talked about what a wonderful human being you are,” Cole said. “They talked about ‘Oh yeah, you’re a bulldog,’ or ‘a great reporter,’ or ‘you’re this,’ or ‘you’re that.’ You know, the professional homage...They don’t dip into, ‘Hey, what a good guy that was’ -- he was. And that’s the first and most profound thing that you see is what other reporters talked about when they talked about Edward.”
Aschoff’s networking skills created long-lasting impacts on professors, fellow journalists as well as coaches and athletes alike.
“‘Keep on rocking,’ was, I think, the last thing I texted to him,” said Ted Spiker, professor and Journalism Chair at UF.
The pair had been messaging back and forth about a guest speaker appearance via Skype for Spiker’s fall Sports Media and Society class. Due to sudden travel changes involving his work, Aschoff had to cancel.
“I would have loved for students to have gotten those 30 minutes with him,” Spiker said. “To see not only what he’s done, but to kind of feel his energy...That was just about a month before he died.”
According to Bruce Feldman, a reporter for The Athletic and friend of Aschoff, college football coaches reached out after his passing to express their sympathy.
ESPN’s Andrea Adelson said that one coach in particular stood out.
“Urban (Meyer) was the head coach at Florida when Edward was a student,” Adelson said. “He reached out to one of my colleagues to see what happened and to give his condolences, because he also remembered Edward as being nothing but a stand up guy who he enjoyed his interactions with.”
As a reporter, Aschoff’s charisma and welcoming persona made it easy for others to trust him with their stories. His feature on LSU running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire and his family serves as a perfect example. Edwards-Helaire’s mother, Tongelia Helaire, shared a heartfelt message following Aschoff’s death, expressing her sadness over his passing, citing the family’s positive experience with him in telling her son’s story.
“My heart is heavy,” Helaire wrote in a Twitter post Christmas morning. “I had the honor of meeting this GREAT human being. A smile as bright & beautiful as the sun w/a personality to match. He said Clyde was a joy to interview. We talked a great deal as you can see; it’s the mother and nurse in me.”
Aschoff took pride in being able to connect with the subjects of his reporting to tell controversial, hot-button stories as they related to the sports world. In 2015, he co-wrote a story for ESPN about the racism college athletes encounter while on with fellow reporter Adam Rittenberg. Several football players shared heavy anecdotes about their own experiences for the piece. The reason why: Aschoff made them feel comfortable.
“Edward was also proud of being able to write stories that pushed boundaries,” Adelson said. “It’s really hard to broach subjects like (racism) that can be so polarizing. Because Edward was able to...build relationships and trust, these players felt comfortable telling them some really uncomfortable things, and it turned into this award winning piece.”
Aschoff’s thoughtfulness showed itself in these stories and his interactions with those he had worked with in the past.
Whenever his job at ESPN landed him in the press box at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Aschoff always made sure that he spoke to Arnold Feliciano, the sports editor for the Gainesville Sun who hired him during his time at UF.
“I remember the last time we talked was at last year’s LSU game,” Feliciano said. “And he just came up to me -- and he always did if we bumped into each other in the press box -- and just put his arm around me and just said, ‘Hey, how ya doing?’... And I told him face-to-face, ‘You know, Edward, we’re really proud of you.’...And he kind of looked at me, smiled and hugged me.”
Aschoff was also extremely grateful for the J-school and the lessons he learned while enrolled there. His affection for the orange and blue made way for an enduring friendship with fellow Gator-grad Adelson.
“You’re talking about two students who were in the journalism school,” Adelson said, “who graduated about nine years apart from the journalism school, and we still had that connection with Florida because of what the J-school did for us.”
The two spent Thanksgiving weekend together in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for this season’s match up between Michigan and Ohio State. Adelson’s husband is an Ann Arbor native, so when she caught wind of Aschoff’s assignment, she insisted that he come over to her mother-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and to watch the infamous Egg Bowl -- a game that had extra sentimental value for the Rebel by blood.
With The Game, between Michigan and Ohio State, kicking off at noon, there was plenty of time for Aschoff and Adelson to wrap up their post-game duties and still catch the most anticipated rivalry game of their alma mater, UF-FSU, which started that night.
“He said, ‘I know I’m not feeling great, but we have to go and watch the Florida-Florida State game after tonight,’” Adelson said.
In a sea of Big Blue fans, Aschoff repped a vintage Gator hat. Adelson told him that she needed to get one just like it.
“Now that I look back on it, after everything that’s happened, I am just so grateful that we had that extra time to spend together and that Florida football was involved.”
Her last game in the Swamp with Aschoff was the same game versus LSU in 2018. Afterwards, the two walked down Gale Lemerand Drive and across University Avenue for a night cap at the famed Swamp restaurant.
“It was awesome to be there together with him in the place that helped both of our dreams come true,” Adelson remembered. “After the game, we went over to The Swamp and hung out and re-lived our days as students -- I think he probably spent more time as a student at The Swamp than I did, but it felt like home. It felt like family being together with him in Gainesville. Even though our time there at school was never together, it just felt normal and right for us to be there together at Florida.”
On Sunday, ESPN had a memorial for Aschoff in Atlanta at the College Football Hall of Fame. Adelson said that about 250 people attended.
Students, professors across all subjects and visitors of the University of Florida from this semester forward: Remember Aschoff as you walk through the breezeway at Weimer Hall. Think about the fact that you stand where he once stood.
The greatest lesson to learn from Edward Aschoff’s story -- whether it be from the vantage point of a student aspiring for something great, a peer mourning the loss of a sports media maestro or simply a fan of his work -- is that we should all strive to work as hard and emanate so much light. We should all work as hard, listen as intently and care as deeply as he did.
“He was going to do so much more for people and the community,” Feldman said. “And I think it’s on us now.”
Follow Payton on Twitter @petitus25 and contact her at ptitus@alligator.org
Payton is a sophomore journalism major from Jacksonville, Florida. She is The Alligator's Spring 2021 digital managing editor. Her previous roles include softball beat writer, football beat writer and online sports editor.
