Bill Rasmussen

Rasmussen was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he attended Gage Park High School. He received a scholarship to attend DePauw University in Indiana, where he met his future wife Mickey. He played baseball (as third baseman) with the hopes of going pro. After college, he was a supply officer in the US Air Force. Parts he procured for the Air Force were used in F-86 and F-89 fighter jets, as well as on Mercury space capsules. He then attended Rutgers University to get his MBA.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}} His son Scott was born in 1956, the year he was discharged from the military.[https://books.google.com/books?id=tcFXL_CP7-IC&pg=PA33 ESPN: The Uncensored History, by Michael Freeman]

Rasmussen's career in the media began in western Massachusetts's Pioneer Valley, at radio station WTTT (1430 AM) in Amherst in 1963. In 1965, he moved south to Springfield, working for both of the city's television stations. First, he worked at WHYN (today's WGGB, channel 40), then WWLP (channel 22), where he spent eight years as a sports director, then two as a news director. In 1974, he moved south to Hartford, Connecticut, to join the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association as their communications director. At the conclusion of the 1977–78 season, Rasmussen was fired by the Whalers. Thus began the pursuit of ESPN, incorporating the fledgling network on July 14, 1978.{{cite web|url=http://www.espnfounder.com/about_bill.htm|title=ESPN Founder - About Bill Rasmussen|access-date=5 November 2016|archive-date=June 8, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608123733/http://espnfounder.com/about_bill.htm|url-status=dead}}

ESPN, originally called Entertainment and Sports Programming, was incorporated on July 14, 1978. It began broadcasting fourteen months later, at 7 p.m. on September 7, 1979.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkqgYTFsHvIC&pg=PT65|title=ESPN Creating an Empire: The No-Holds-Barred Story of Power, Ego, Money, and Vision That Transformed a Culture|last=Evey|first=Stuart|date=1 September 2004|publisher=Triumph Books|isbn=978-1-62368-141-8|pages=65–66}} ESPN wound up being headquartered in Bristol, Connecticut. Rasmussen paid $18,000 for the first acre of ESPN's campus.{{cite web|url=http://thebiglead.com/2016/05/12/legends-suite-with-a-legend-attending-yankees-red-sox-with-espns-founding-father-bill-rasmussen/|title=Legends Suite With a Legend: Attending Yankees-Red Sox With ESPN's Founding Father Bill Rasmussen|last=Glasspiegel|first=Ryan|date=12 May 2016|website=The Big Lead|access-date=5 November 2016}}

Getty Oil purchased 85% of ESPN and left 15% of the enterprise to be split.{{cite web|url=http://deadspin.com/artifact-the-quiet-founder-of-espns-10-million-stoc-1566133061|title=Artifact: The "Quiet Founder" Of ESPN's $10 Million Stock Certificate|first=Travis|last=Vogan|date=May 7, 2014 |access-date=5 November 2016}}

By July 18, 1979, before launch, the investors decided to remove Rasmussen from power. His salary and responsibilities were cut.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tcFXL_CP7-IC&pg=PA65|title=ESPN: The Uncensored History|last=Freeman|first=Michael|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2001|isbn=978-0-87833-270-0|pages=65–}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5aR2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT6|title=Connecticut Miscellany: ESPN, The Age of the Reptiles, CowParade & More|last=Faude|first=Wilson H.|date=18 June 2013|publisher=Arcadia Publishing Incorporated|isbn=978-1-61423-946-8|pages=6–}}

Just prior to the launch of ESPN, according to the book Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN Stuart Evey claimed "I made Bill Chairman, but in no way did I want to give him any responsibility!"{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SkYN5eMreOUC&pg=PT65|title=Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN|last1=Miller|first1=James Andrew|last2=Shales|first2=Tom|date=24 May 2011|publisher=Little, Brown|isbn=978-0-316-12576-5|pages=15–65}} "Having Bill Rasmussen play a significant role was just not part of the deal."{{cite web|url=http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2011/04/04/People-and-Pop-Culture/Rasmussen.aspx|title=Champions: Bill Rasmussen, ESPN creator|date=April 4, 2011 |access-date=5 November 2016}} Rasmussen, the one who had the idea for ESPN, stepped back from day-to-day business, having less contact with ESPN until mid 1999. Rasmussen and ESPN "made amends" in 1999 when then-president George Bodenheimer reached out to the founder for the network's 20th anniversary.

On September 30, 1980, ESPN officials announced that Bill Rasmussen was leaving the company by agreement.

The New York Times reported in 1984{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/01/business/abc-to-acquire-espn-as-texaco-sells-its-72.html|title=ABC to Acquire ESPN as Texaco Sells Its 72%|last=Kleinfield|first=N. R.|date=1984-05-01|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-03-05|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} that ABC purchased controlling interest in ESPN by buying out Getty Oil's position. At the time of the Getty Oil buy out, ABC in turn bought out the Rasmussen Families 15% for $6,000,000. Rasmussen had to split the $6,000,000 with numerous other investors and funders such as his brother Don Rasmussen, with Bill Rasmussen ending up with an estimated $1.2 million and a little over $740,000 after taxes.

George Bodenheimer, then president of ESPN, recognized Rasmussen in October 2005 and dedicated a plaque and flag pole in Rasmussen's honor.

The all sports radio network Enterprise Radio Network was founded in January 1981 by Scott Rasmussen, the son of Bill Rasmussen, and was shuttered by September 1981. The network broadcast sports reports twice an hour and did live phone in sports talk from 6 pm to 8 am Eastern Time seven days a week. The project failed, with employees not getting paid all wages they were due. Bill Rasmussen was sued by the labor department along with Scott for allegedly violating the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jLlRE0DwtxUC&pg=PA84|title=JOCK AROUND THE CLOCK: The story of history's first all-sports radio network|last=Birchard|first=John|date=29 November 2010|publisher=Xlibris Corporation|isbn=978-1-4568-2261-3|pages=9–84}}{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=December 2017}}

Rasmussen became involved in plans to build a 12,000-seat golf stadium in Naples, Florida.{{cite web|url=http://www.sptimes.com/News/110401/news_pf/State/Collier_County_growth.shtml|title=State: Collier County growth bulged with corruption|access-date=5 November 2016}} The project was rife with corruption, with the Naples Daily News describing it as the "biggest public corruption scandal in local history".{{cite web|url=http://archive.naplesnews.com/special/lighthouse/lighthouse-project---history-stadium-naples-was-biggest-public-corruption-scandal-in-local-history-e-342577612.html|title=Lighthouse Project - History: Stadium Naples was biggest public corruption scandal in local history|access-date=5 November 2016}} Rasmussen became a subject of the criminal investigations surrounding the project and pled guilty to two misdemeanor cases of fraud in a plea deal that reduced the charges against him in exchange for his cooperation in the corruption case against the public officials.{{cite web|url=http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/apnews/stories/062103/D7RQ71BG1.html|title=Jacksonville.com: Former commissioner gets three years probation 6/21/03|access-date=5 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105223937/http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/apnews/stories/062103/D7RQ71BG1.html|archive-date=2016-11-05|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|url=http://www.espn.com/moresports/news/2002/0828/1423840.html |title=Rasmussen pleads guilty to fraud charges |date=August 28, 2002 |newspaper=AP |publisher=ESPN}}

In July 2019, Rasmussen disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.si.com/tech-media/2019/07/15/bill-rasmussen-espn-founder-parkinsons-disease-diagnosis|title=ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen diagnosed with Parkinson's|last=Abdeldaiem|first=Alaa|magazine=Sports Illustrated|date=July 15, 2019 |language=en-us|access-date=2020-01-25}}

• A United States Air Force veteran, Rasmussen received his bachelor's degree in Economics from DePauw University (Greencastle, Indiana) and his MBA from Rutgers University.
• CynopsisMedia – Sports Hall Of Fame{{cite web|url=http://www.cynopsis.com/story/rasmussen-talks-media-critics-and-the-crisis-that-could-have-derailed-espn/|title=Rasmussen talks media, critics and the crisis that could have derailed ESPN|website=Cynopsis Media|date=June 20, 2016 |access-date=5 November 2016}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Presidents of ESPN}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rasmussen, Bill}}

Category:Presidents of ESPN

Category:People from Chicago

Category:American people of Danish descent

Category:American television executives

Category:DePauw University alumni

Category:Rutgers University alumni

Category:Living people

Category:1932 births

Category:People with Parkinson's disease

Category:World Hockey Association broadcasters

Category:Hartford Whalers announcers

Category:American cable television company founders