William F. Rasmussen (born October 15, 1932)
is an American sports director, and one of the founders of
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
, along with
Scott Rasmussen
Scott William Rasmussen (born March 30, 1956) is an American public opinion pollster and political analyst. He previously produced the ScottRasmussen.com Daily Tracking Poll, a gauge of American voters' political sentiment. He is editor-at-large ...
and Ed Eagan. Rasmussen served as the first president and CEO of
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
. ESPN was founded on July 14, 1978, and was launched on September 7, 1979.
Early life
Bill Rasmussen was born in Chicago, Illinois where he attended
Gage Park High School. He received a scholarship to attend
DePauw University
DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the ...
in Indiana, where he met his future wife Mickey. After college, he was a supply officer in the
US Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...
. He played baseball (as third baseman) with the hopes of going pro. 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
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
to get his MBA. His son
Scott was born in 1956, the year he was discharged from the military.
Career
Rasmussen's career in the media began in western
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
's
Pioneer Valley
The Pioneer Valley is the colloquial and promotional name for the portion of the Connecticut River Valley that is in Massachusetts in the United States. It is generally taken to comprise the three counties of Hampden, Hampshire, and Frankli ...
, 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
WGGB-TV (channel 40) is a television station in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with ABC, Fox, and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power CBS affiliate WSHM-LD (channel 3.7). Both stations shar ...
, channel 40), then
WWLP
WWLP (channel 22) is a television station in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station has studios at Broadcast Center in the Sandy Hill section of Chicopee at the ...
(channel 22), where he spent eight years as a sports director, then two as a
news director
A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, ...
. In 1974 he moved south to
Hartford, Connecticut, to join the
New England Whalers
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
of the
World Hockey Association
The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...
as their communications director. At the conclusion of the
1977–78 season, Rasmussen was fired by the Whalers. Thus began the pursuit of
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
, incorporating the fledgling network on July 14, 1978.
ESPN
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.
ESPN wound up being headquartered in
Bristol, Connecticut
Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. As of the 2020 census, th ...
. Rasmussen paid $18,000 for the first acre of ESPN's campus.
Getty Oil
Getty Oil was an American oil marketing company with its origins as part of the large integrated oil company founded by J. Paul Getty.
History
J. Paul Getty incorporated Getty Oil in 1942. He had previously worked in the oil fields of Oklaho ...
purchased 85% of ESPN and left 15% of the enterprise to be split.
By July 18, 1979, before launch, the investors decided to remove Rasmussen from power.
His salary and responsibilities were cut.
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!"
"Having Bill Rasmussen play a significant role was just not part of the deal."
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 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
George Bodenheimer (born May 6, 1958) is the former president of ESPN Inc. and of ABC's sports division, known since 2006 as ESPN on ABC. He was president of ESPN since November 19, 1998 and of the former ABC Sports since March 3, 2003.
The ''S ...
, then president of ESPN, recognized Rasmussen in October 2005 and dedicated a plaque and flag pole in Rasmussen's honor.
Enterprise Radio Network
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.
Other business
Rasmussen became involved in plans to build a 12,000-seat golf stadium in
Naples, Florida
Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the historical city (i.e. in the immediate vicinity of downtown Naples) was 19,115. Naples is a principal city of the Naples-Marco Island, Flori ...
.
The project was rife with corruption, with the ''
Naples Daily News
The ''Naples Daily News'' is the main daily newspaper of Naples, Florida, and Collier County. It is owned by Gannett and has a circulation of more than 40,000.
It was previously owned by Milwaukee-based Journal Media Group, which was formed by a ...
'' describing it as the "biggest public corruption scandal in local history".
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.
Personal life
In July 2019, Rasmussen disclosed that he had been diagnosed with
Parkinson's
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
disease.
Honors and awards
*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
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rasmussen, Bill
Presidents of ESPN
People from Chicago
American people of Danish descent
American television executives
DePauw University alumni
Rutgers University alumni
Living people
1932 births
People with Parkinson's disease
World Hockey Association broadcasters
Hartford Whalers announcers