PBS NewsHourLean L·
ESPN co-founder Bill Rasmussen dies at 93
ESPN debuted in 1979, but the Rasmussens didn't stick around long – they were forced out after only a year by ESPN majority owner Getty Oil.
Read at PBS NewsHour →
Bill Rasmussen, whose vision and ambition fueled the 1979 launch of ESPN as the world's first 24-hour television network, died Tuesday. He was 93.
<iframe src="https://statesidedaily.com/embed/cluster/83da322422ef847a963f984421cc0a0b92d795db" width="100%" height="320" style="border:0;max-width:680px" loading="lazy" title="Bill Rasmussen, co-founder of ESPN, dies at 93"></iframe>
Bill Rasmussen, a visionary who founded ESPN in 1979 with his son Scott as the world’s first 24-hour sports television network, died Tuesday at 93 of the effects of Parkinson’s disease at his home in Florida. Rasmussen revealed in 2019 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a degenerative disease, in 2014. Shrugging off skeptics, […]
The former New England Whalers exec and his son came up with the idea for an all-sports network in 1978 while stuck in traffic.
Bill Rasmussen, whose vision and ambition fueled the 1979 launch of ESPN as the world's first 24-hour television network, died Tuesday. He was 93.