ESPN Founder Bill Rasmussen Dies at 93
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Bill Rasmussen died at 93 after battling Parkinson's disease, having founded ESPN in 1979 as a former local-news sports director who acquired a satellite transponder from RCA.
- ESPN launched in September 1979 with 80 staffers on a single acre near Bristol, Connecticut, initially telecasting Connecticut sports; Getty Oil took a majority stake within months and Anheuser-Busch signed a major ad contract.
- Rasmussen was pushed out by investors by 1980, just a year after launch; ABC bought out Getty and Rasmussen family stakes in 1984.
- SportsCenter, launched under Rasmussen as ESPN's opening program with hosts Lee Leonard and George Grande, remains on air today, alongside his introductions of 24/7 sports programming and NCAA tournament early-round coverage in spring 1980.
- ESPN, now controlled by Disney with Hearst and the NFL as minority investors, employs more than 5,900 people worldwide and programs eight U.S. television networks plus ABC's sports lineup.
- Rasmussen was born in Chicago on October 15, 1932, earned an economics degree from DePauw University, served in the U.S. Air Force, and earned an MBA from Rutgers; he authored two books about ESPN's founding, most recently "ESPN: One Giant Leap for Fankind" in 2023.
Why it matters: Rasmussen built ESPN from an 80-person Connecticut startup into a 5,900-employee, eight-network operation now controlled by Disney — but investors pushed him out by 1980 and ABC bought out his family's stake by 1984, meaning the founder was sidelined from the empire he created before it became a household name.
Ask SkimNews
