Bill Rasmussen, a former local-news sports director who parlayed an interest in the nascent business of satellite television into the launch of the sports-media giant known as ESPN, has died after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. The entrepreneur and founder was 93 years old. Rasmussen in 1978 was idling in traffic on Connecticut’s Interstate 84 after acquiring a satellite transponder from RCA, and decided to launch a new network devoted only to sports on a single acre near the small town of Bristol.
Their Entertainment and Sports Programming network employed just 80 staffers at the time of its launch in September of 1979, and telecast Connecticut sports to state residents. Within months, Oil would buy up a majority of the enterprise, while brewing giant Anheuser-Busch agreed to a substantial advertising contract. But investors pushed the founder out by 1980.
ABC bought out the stakes of both and Rasmussen family members in 1984. The opening program on ESPN was a show called “SportsCenter,” hosted at the time by Lee Leonard and George Grande. The series remains on air at the network.
Rasmussen also introduced round-the-clock sports programming and coverage of the early rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in the spring of 1980, which drew national attention to ESPN. In 2026, ESPN employs more than 5,900 employees around the world, and programs eight U.S. television networks plus the sports programming on ABC, along with a mobile app and a burgeoning and direct-to-consumer service, a suite of radio programs and podcasts and social and digital feeds. The outlet, now controlled by Disney, with Hearst and the NFL counted as minority investors, is home to such sports staples as “Monday Night Football,” the hot-talk show “First Take” and hours and hours of NFL and NBA telecasts, among other sports coverage.
He wasn’t 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’s legacy.” Bill Rasmussen was born in Chicago on October 15, 1932, in Chicago and raised in nearby Columbus Manor, IL. He played sports in his youth, earning an invitation to a minor league affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.
Instead, he gravitated to business, earnings a bachelor’s degree in economics from DePauw University in Greencastle, IN. After graduating in 1954, he served in the United States Air Force and later earned an MBA from Rutgers University. His media career began at WTTT radio in Amherst, Mass., in 1962.
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