The Man Who Built ESPN | Hartford News

The man who dreamed up ESPN, Bill Rasmussen, has died at 93 — a visionary whose bold 1979 gamble with a $9,000 credit card launch turned sports into a 24-hour global obsession. Starting with a local Connecticut channel, he and his son Scott scaled it into a national powerhouse, landing key deals with Getty Oil and the NCAA. Though ousted after just a year, Rasmussen’s legacy endured — eventually embraced by ESPN as its founding spirit. His journey from a fired hockey job to building a media empire proves that passion and grit can reshape the world — and every game you watch today carries his mark.

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