Dave Darling, Orlando Sentinal

ESPN's 'father' watches growth from a distance

Published February 9, 2007

Whenever Bill Rasmussen is speaking in public, he always begins by asking his audience, "'How many of you watched ESPN last night?'

"Of course almost everyone raises their hand," he explains. "Then I ask, 'On Sept. 7, 1979, how many of you were watching ESPN when we went on the air for the first time?' . . . In all these years, I've never seen anyone raise their hand."

And he likely never will.

The network that began when cable and satellite dishes were as common in U.S. homes as cappuccino machines and personal computers has grown into an international media empire.

As ESPN prepares to air its 30,000th SportsCenter this Sunday, the network's founding father still can recall clearly that late-summer night in 1979.

"We were all numb with anticipation. I remember saying to [son] Scott that what we're doing could really have an impact some day. 'I wonder what kind of an impact that might be?' I asked."

Then at 7 p.m., ESPN went on the air, and anchor Lee Leonard told the hundreds watching: "If you're a fan, if you're a fan, what you'll see in the next minutes, hours and days to follow may convince you you've gone to sports heaven."

ESPN was hatched in 2 million homes from the imagination, determination and tireless work of Bill Rasmussen.

The network began with a couple of satellite dishes.

Today, it rules the universe.

What started inside a trailer on a one-acre plot in Bristol, Conn., has grown to a 64-acre spread with 27 satellite dishes that record about 200 hours of highlights and programming each day.

The flagship station reaches some 93 million homes in the United States and is beamed to more than 145 countries and territories via ESPN International.

Spin-off projects include ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes and a radio network. Its Web site is the most popular sports site in the world, and ESPN The Magazine is the second-largest sports magazine in the U.S.

Back in 1979, no one saw any of this coming.

Rasmussen, a former sportscaster and spokesman for the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers, had been working for several years putting the network together -- striking up conversations and recruiting anyone who would listen.

"We knew it would be big just by the response it was generating," Rasmussen said of the months leading up to the station's launch. "But I don't think there was a soul on Earth who thought it would get as big as it's gotten to be."

Unfortunately for Rasmussen, he didn't get to stay with the company long enough to see it grow into a media giant. Scott Rasmussen resigned from ESPN under pressure from Getty Oil Co. executives on Sept. 18, 1979, just 11 days after launch. And the elder Rasmussen's role was curtailed by Getty -- which financed the start-up and owned 80 percent of the company -- shortly thereafter. He would leave ESPN for good less than a year later.

Just like Moe Greene, the fictional character credited with inventing Las Vegas in The Godfather, there isn't as much as a building or a plaque at the 64-acre Bristol campus honoring his achievement.

Rasmussen, 74, has gone on to lead numerous business ventures, including public speaking and consulting work, and says the bitterness over his dismissal wore off long ago.

In 1994, Sports Illustrated published a list of the 40 most influential people in sports, calling Rasmussen the "Father of Cable Sports."