ESPN Reporter Dead at 34

Ed Aschoff "smiled with his entire being," told stories as "one of the smartest, brightest reporters" around, and was always the best-dressed guy in any room, his colleagues at ESPN say in a heartbreaking obituary. Aschoff, a college football reporter for the network, died on Christmas Eve, his 34th birthday, of pneumonia he contracted on the job at the Ohio State-Michigan game on Nov. 30. Variety notes that Aschoff had recently said on social media that his illness had progressed into multifocal pneumonia: "I’m on day 4 of antibiotics. Days are getting better but nights are basically fever and coughing and sweating." Aschoff is survived by a fiancee, Katy, who proposed to him last December with a Godzilla ring. They were due to be married in April. Among the tributes:

• ESPN executive editor Lauren Reynolds: "Ed was one of the smartest, brightest reporters I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Watching him grow from our co-SEC reporter with Chris Low to a multiplatform national reporter was a treat. For as good of a reporter Ed was, he was an even better person. He always put people first -- those whose stories he told, and those who had the honor of working alongside him."
• ESPN senior vice president Rob King: Aschoff was "a ray of light." "He smiled with his entire being, loved his fiancée and family, and brought joy to the job. I hope you knew him, too."

(More obituary stories.)