Bill Rasmussen, the visionary who co-founded ESPN and helped change the way American sports, including the NBA, were consumed on television, has died. He was 93.
ESPN announced Tuesday that Rasmussen died at his Florida home from the effects of Parkinson’s disease.
Rasmussen and his son, Scott, developed the idea for what became ESPN after Bill was fired as communications director of the New England Whalers. At a time when a 24-hour sports television network sounded more like a gamble than a viable business, Rasmussen maxed out his credit card and used a $9,000 advance to secure satellite space.
ESPN launched on Sept. 7, 1979.
The NBA became part of the network’s story just a few years later. ESPN reached its first agreement with the league in 1982, beginning an initial run of NBA games that lasted through 1984.
Nearly two decades later, the relationship was revived. NBA games returned to ESPN in 2002, and the network eventually became one of the league’s defining national television homes, with ESPN and corporate sibling ABC carrying regular-season games, the playoffs and NBA Finals.
That relationship isn’t going away anytime soon. ESPN is part of the NBA’s current 11-year media-rights agreements that extend through the 2035-36 season.
“Quite simply, none of us would be here today if it wasn’t for Bill’s passion and all the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit he put into building ESPN in the late 1970s,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement.
Rasmussen left ESPN only a few years after its launch, but the idea he helped turn into reality became inseparable from American sports.
For NBA fans, it’s difficult to imagine the league’s television history without it.
Looking for the latest NBA Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow Hoops Wire on TWITTER and FACEBOOK for breaking NBA News and Rumors for all 30 teams!
