The KC Star, Wall Street Journal and Yahoo! Sports launch Terez A. Paylor Scholarship
The Kansas City Star, in partnership with The Wall Street Journal and Yahoo! Sports, has launched the Terez A. Paylor Scholarship at his alma mater, Howard University.
Awarded to students majoring in sports journalism who carry a minimum 3.0 GPA, the scholarship honors the memory of Paylor, the former KC Star reporter who died unexpectedly earlier this month at the age of 37.
Paylor’s parents, Sharmyn Elliott and Ava Paylor-Elliott, issued the following statement about the creation of the Terez A. Paylor Scholarship, for which contributions are now being accepted (details follow below, at the bottom of this story):
“On behalf of the Paylor/Elliott family, we are eternally grateful to all parties that made possible the establishment of the Terez A. Paylor Scholarship at his alma mater — Howard University (HU). We can’t think of a better way to acknowledge, honor and cement Terez’s legacy and contributions as a sports journalist than establishing this scholarship in his name at HU. By virtue of this scholarship, it is our hope that our son’s legacy will live on and inspire future Black sports journalists to employ the tenacity and perseverance Terez epitomized, and to uphold these values he embodied by committing to be the best they can possibly be and to ‘never be outworked.’”
Paylor graduated magna cum laude from Howard in May 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. He worked for 12 years at The Star and continued to make Kansas City his home. He covered high school sports, and then Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer and University of Missouri athletics, before becoming The Star’s lead Chiefs beat writer.
In 2018, Paylor took a national job with Yahoo! Sports, where he covered the NFL until his passing. He also had a radio program, “The Terez Paylor Show,” on 610 Sports Radio and was a contributor to Chiefs coverage at 41 Action News in KC.
Paylor’s fiancée, Ebony Reed, released the following statement about the new scholarship:
“Terez’s extraordinary life touched so many, and the Terez A. Paylor Scholarship will continue that impact. It was a long-term goal of Terez’s to have a scholarship in his name at Howard University to help bring more students, especially those of color, into sports journalism. Terez was an exceptional journalist whose passion for football made him a respected voice. His legacy of excellent reporting with a human touch, deep knowledge of football and being known as someone who always had time to help a friend or offer mentorship will now impact future generations, too.”
Paylor mentored young journalists and supported several charities. A selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he advocated for NFL players of diverse backgrounds, including Terrell Owens, to be considered for the game’s highest honor. In 2018, he joined fellow Howard alum and longtime NFL defensive back Antione Bethea in writing his book and personal story, “Bet On Yourself: Inside the Mind of the Ultimate Underdog.”
In the spring of 2020, Paylor explained to Yahoo! Sports podcast listeners why NFL players had taken on social justice issues while kneeling at games as he talked about the significance of George Floyd’s recent death at the hands of a Minnesota policeman.
“Four-hundred years is a long time to have a history of bad stuff happening and inequality,” Paylor said during the podcast with colleague Charles Robinson. “That’s a long time. Even though rules were changed in the ‘60s and laws were passed, the effects of the stuff from the first 350 years are still felt. And they are not forgotten.
“They have wide-ranging impacts on families in every state, on multiple social-economic statuses. … It’s not a victim mentality. I really want people to understand. Most Black people would like nothing more than to forget it. Forget the fact that skin color does matter. The problem is far too often you are kind of reminded of it without it being something you want to have happen.”
Services for Paylor are scheduled to take place this week in Detroit — a visitation on Wednesday and a live-streamed Homegoing Service at 10:30 a.m. Central Time Thursday. The Thursday services can be viewed at https://www.fellowshipchapel.org/worship-sermons/
Donate to the Terez A. Paylor Scholarship
Online credit card gifts toward the Terez A. Paylor Scholarship may be made at this link: https://giving.howard.edu/givenow.
Under “Tribute,” please note that the gift is made in memory of Terez A. Paylor. Under “Designation,” click on “Other” and write in “Terez A. Paylor Scholarship.”
Alternatively, checks may be mailed to:
Howard University
P.O. Box 417853
Boston, Mass. 02241-7853
Please note that the gift is being made toward the Terez A. Paylor Scholarship.
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 12:41 PM.