Howie Schwab, a sports nerd who parlayed his love of statistics into a long stint at ESPN that was most notable for his starring role as the ultimate trivia expert on the game show, “Stump the Schwab,” died on April 27 in Aventura, FL. He was 63.

On “Stump the Schwab,” three challengers vied to outdo Mr. Schwab in answering questions posed by the host, Stuart Scott. Mr. Schwab almost always won. The show ran from 2004-2006.

ESPN hired him in 1997 as a freelance researcher, promoted him to staff researcher the next year, and put him in charge of the growing research department in 1991. Four years later, he was named coordinating producer of espn.com/. He moved up to coordinating producer of studio production in 1998.