Bill Rasmussen shares story behind network with USC
Bill Rasmussen is a baseball fan.
So naturally, when he met USC President Harris Pastides, there was one main topic he wanted to discuss.
“Baseball,” Rasmussen said. “He, as all of you are, is incredibly proud of the back-to-back national championships. What I mentioned to him was, because of my interest in baseball, prior to ESPN, the College World Series had no coverage. I wanted to include it, and that was part of our contract with the NCAA — that we get to do the College World Series.”
Rasmussen, the founder of ESPN, is not only a baseball fan, but a sports fan in general, which pointed him towards a 24-hour network devoted only to sports.
Thirty-two years later, Rasmussen doesn’t even watch his brainchild every day.
“I’m not a big television fan,” Rasmussen said. “I’d rather be doing things.”
Rasmussen has always been the type to do something rather than sit around, which was what led him to found ESPN. After he was fired as the communications director of the New England Whalers hockey team, the opportunity arose for him to get involved in something new.
Rasmussen heard about a satellite “drifting around up in the heavens” and decided that with the satellite’s capabilities, he was going to get a 24-hour transponder and fill it with sports.
“On Aug. 16, which I remember very well because it was my daughter’s 16th birthday, my son and I drove to New Jersey for her birthday party, and in that 8-hour stretch of driving — I was driving and he was writing — we laid out everything that ESPN became,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen was originally laughed at by the major cable networks when he proposed his idea of a 24-hour sports network.
“They thought this was the dumbest idea ever known to mankind,” Rasmussen said. “Everywhere I went people said, ‘No, it’s not going to work.’ I remember going to one very prestigious broadcasting company — not one of the big networks — and they invited me to lunch with the board, which was very kind of them.
We had a nice meeting after which the chairman walked me to the door and figuratively patted me on the back, ‘You’re a nice young man, but this idea is never going to work.’”
Rasmussen refers to himself as a positive guy who doesn’t take no for an answer. When speaking to a crowd of college students, he says that is his greatest message.
“I think in this country we have such opportunity,” Rasmussen said. “When we started, we didn’t have computers. We didn’t have email. We weren’t online. There was no Internet. There was no digital. But right now, in any room, any collection of people could pick a name for a business, go to any domain supplier, make it a website under construction and put it online in 10 minutes.
“Back then we used to have to call people, put a stamp on an envelope, mail it to them, they mailed it back. Then it’s, ‘You can meet me three weeks from Thursday.’ Today we wouldn’t even do that. Given the tools and given the ability to communicate today, I’m kind of envious because I would like to start a whole bunch of new businesses.”
Rasmussen looks at ESPN in the way someone would look at their kids who grew up to be successful lawyers or doctors.
His favorite part of ESPN is the “Baseball Tonight” program, mostly because of his love of the sport. Though he doesn’t watch the channel every day, he still takes immense pride in how it has grown.
Rasmussen likes to end his appearances by challenging his audience in the same way he challenged himself 33 years ago when he was out of a job:
“Which one of you is going to walk through that door with the next great idea that I’ll know started here tonight?”