Ed Schultz, former MSNBC host, dead at 64

FARGO, N.D. -- Broadcasting personality Ed Schultz, whose career took him from quarterbacking at a Minnesota college to national radio and television, has died, CBS News has confirmed. He was 64.

His son, David Schultz, told The Associated Press that his father died of natural causes Thursday morning in Washington, D.C., where he anchored "News with Ed Schultz" on RT America, the channel formerly known as Russia Today.

"We are devastated by the news of the sudden death of our brilliant anchor, one of the best TV-Journalists in America, Ed Schultz," RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said in a statement posted by the outlet. "When the campaign against RT America began and the channel was forced to register as a foreign agent, Ed set an example for all of us, saying: 'Let them call me what they want, I am going to speak the truth no matter what.'"

Schultz hosted "The Ed Show" on MSNBC from 2009 to 2015.

In the 1970s, Schultz was a standout quarterback at Minnesota State University-Moorhead. He went on to a career as a sportscaster at TV and radio stations in the area around Moorhead, Minnesota, and Fargo, North Dakota.

He later became a conservative radio talk show host. But he had evolved into a fiery liberal by the time he took his show into national syndication in 2004.