LAND O\u2019 LAKES, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Bill Rasmussen, who co-founded TV sports giant ESPN after hatching the idea for the world\u2019s first all-sports cable network with his son, died Tuesday. He was 93.<\/p>\n
ESPN historian Mike Soltys said Rasmussen died at his Florida home from the effects of Parkinson\u2019s disease. Rasmussen announced in 2019 that he had been diagnosed with the degenerative disease in 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cBill was a remarkable man \u2014 a visionary and an innovator who conceived the idea of a network entirely devoted to sports,\u201d ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. \u201cQuite simply, none of us would be here today if it wasn\u2019t for Bill\u2019s passion and all the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit he put into building ESPN in the late 1970s \u2014 key aspects of our company culture that still carry on to this day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rasmussen and his son Scott came up with the idea of a network carrying sports around the clock, and it would revolutionize Americans\u2019 TV-watching habits. But the Rasmussens didn\u2019t stick around long. They were forced out after only a year by ESPN majority owner Getty Oil.<\/p>\n
Cable operators initially scoffed at Rasmussen\u2019s concept <\/p>\n
Bill Rasmussen\u2019s original idea was a cable channel covering only Connecticut sports. Many cable operators in the state were skeptical, but someone suggested buying satellite time to reach a national audience.<\/p>\n
ESPN was launched on Sept. 7, 1979. George Grande welcomed viewers to the first \u201cSportsCenter\u201d broadcast before the network\u2019s first live event, a slow-pitch softball game between the Kentucky Bourbons and the Milwaukee Schlitz.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn those days, we didn\u2019t know if we\u2019d last four weeks, four years, let alone 40-some, but we knew it was special,\u201d Grande said. \u201cBottom line was Bill Rasmussen was the true purveyor of the original American dream, and he gave us all something very special that we still have today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rasmussens secured financial backing from Getty Oil and a rights deal with the NCAA, and built a studio in Bristol, Connecticut, still under construction when ESPN went on the air.<\/p>\n
The Getty investment and the deal with the NCAA occurred on the same day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone tells you you can\u2019t do something, you want to prove them wrong,\u201d Bill Rasmussen said. \u201cMany, many people told us there wasn\u2019t enough sports to do a 24-hour channel. I didn\u2019t argue with anybody. I just thought they were wrong and I was right.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the Rasmussens were forced out of ESPN in 1980, Getty owned 85% of the network. Texaco, which had acquired Getty, sold its interest in ESPN to ABC in 1984.<\/p>\n
ESPN helped bring a host of sports to cable<\/p>\n
In 1980, only months after its debut, ESPN started televising the NFL draft. The network debuted the ESPY Awards in 1993 and launched the X Games competition in 1995.<\/p>\n
The college football landscape underwent massive changes. Games were spread throughout the week to tailor to TV audiences and the number of postseason bowls skyrocketed. ESPN has held exclusive broadcast rights to the College Football Playoff since it began after the 2014 season. In 2024, the network agreed to a new six-year, $7.8 billion contract for the playoff through the 2031-32 season.<\/p>\n
While CNN was finding its footing on the news side, ESPN jostled with major networks to bring NFL and college sports to cable audiences that had been over the airwaves for decades. ESPN also pioneered funding and broadcasting women\u2019s sports, particularly college basketball, volleyball and the softball World Series.<\/p>\n
Rasmussen was courted back by ESPN years later<\/p>\n
Bill Rasmussen and ESPN were estranged until 1999, when company executives invited him to the 20th anniversary celebration. Since then, he has been embraced and recognized for his vision of creating an all-sports network. He toured the country in 2019 for the 40th anniversary and gave speeches at Walt Disney Co. and ESPN events.<\/p>\n
\u201cBill was our George Washington and a good friend,\u201d said veteran anchor Chris Berman, who joined ESPN three weeks after the network launched in 1979. \u201cHe was such a grateful person and every sports fan can be grateful for Bill. He wasn\u2019t a glass half-full guy; his glass was always overflowing with optimism. He greeted everyone with a smile and we can all smile knowing Bill\u2019s legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
ESPN\u2019s debut came after Rasmussen was fired from a previous job<\/p>\n
Born in Chicago, Rasmussen earned degrees from DePauw University in Indiana and Rutgers University and served in the Air Force. He started an advertising services business, then worked in radio and television as a broadcaster during the 1960s.<\/p>\n
He was hired in 1974 as public relations director for the World Hockey Association\u2019s New England Whalers in Hartford, Connecticut. The team\u2019s entire front office was fired in 1978, and Rasmussen soon turned his attention to brainstorming with his son on the creation of sports on cable TV with the help of a $9,000 credit card advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a whole lot of chutzpah and a whole lot of vision, and they\u2019re maxed out on their credit cards. It\u2019s the American dream,\u201d said Bob Ley, one of the network\u2019s original anchors.<\/p>\n
Rasmussen was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2025.<\/p>\n
Rasmussen was predeceased by his wife of 56 years, Lois, in 2011 and is survived by two sons, Scott Rasmussen and his wife, Laura, and Glenn Rasmussen, daughter Lynn Van Hollebeke and her husband, Louie, seven grandchildren, one great-grandson and one great-granddaughter. In addition to his wife, Bill was predeceased by his brothers Robert and Donald Rasmussen, sister Vivien and a grandson.<\/p>\n
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