RASMUSSEN TODAY
Bill Rasmussen continues to be a popular guest on the speaking circuit, with engagements at Inc.Magazine;The January Series at Calvin College;Princeton University;The Maverick Series at Universityof Texas-Arlington;the University of Florida;Oklahoma; Minnesota; Build Magazine;and The Center for Sports Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Rasmussen delivered the keynote address at the Entrepreneurship Center at the CEO Forum at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne,Ind. He spoke at the Maastricht Institute of Entrepreneurship, which is held on the campus of Missouri Valley College. He is a frequent guest on radio, television and the pitcher’s mound.
He is now bringing awareness to Parkinson's Disease, encouraging people who live with it, and seeking a cure for it. Read more about Rasmussen’s experience with Parkinson’s on ESPN Front Row.
LIFE BEFORE ESPN
Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Rasmussen was most talented in baseball, but followed all sports with interest. Rasmussen went to DePauw University (Greencastle, Ind.) and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 1954.
He then served in the United States Air Force before beginning his professional career working for Westinghouse’s lamp division (Bloomfield, N.J.) in sales and marketing.
After earning his MBA from Rutgers University (1960), Rasmussen had the idea for his first entrepreneurial startup, an advertising services business based in Newark, N.J. - Westinghouse was his first customer. That business thrives six decades later.
But Rasmussen walked away from that business to pursue his dream to become a sports broadcaster. In 1962, WTTT-AM Radio in Amherst, Mass., hired Rasmussen. While there, he created the first-ever radio network for University of Massachusetts football and basketball games.
Three years later, Rasmussen joined WWLP-TV (NBC) in Springfield, Mass., where he spent eight years on the air as the sports director and two years as its news director.
After an earlier successful entrepreneurial venture in the advertising business, Rasmussen’s career in the media began in 1963 at WTTT radio in Amherst, Mass. In 1965, he moved to WWLP-TV, Springfield,Mass.,where he spent eight years assportsdirector and two years asnewsdirector andeveningnewsanchor. During these years, he handled numerousfootball, basketball, baseball and hockey play-by-play assignments on both radio and television.
In 1974, he left Springfield to join hockey’s New England Whalers ascommunicationsdirector. At the conclusion of the 1977-78 World Hockey Association season, Rasmussen was fired (along with the entire front office) by the Whalers.Thusbegan the pursuit of the ESPN dream, incorporating the fledgling network on July 14, 1978. Fourteen months later, at 7 p.m. on September 7, 1979, Rasmussen’s dream, ESPN, became reality.
Creating ESPN
Thus began the pursuit of the ESPN dream, an idea born during a conversation with his son Scott during a traffic jam on Interstate 84 that summer.
The following year, they embarked on a whirlwind effort to accomplish the impossible - armed with a $9,000 credit card advance and just enough cable TV knowledge to be dangerous.
In about 14 months, the Rasmussens acquired satellite time and technology; negotiated programming rights with the NCAA and advertising deals with corporate giants like Anheuser-Busch; secured interim and long term financing; assembled a staff and constructed production facilities in time for the Sept. 7, 1979 launch in Bristol, Conn.
In their wildest dreams, the Rasmussens could not have guessed the magnitude of the idea, the impact it would have on sports broadcasting, or the global acceptance that is has achieved today.
How did they get there? Buy Bill's book "Sports Junkies Rejoice: The Birth Of ESPN" for all the details!
LIFE AFTER ESPN
Rasmussen has served as a consultant to the Big Ten Conference, and several of the conference’s individual member institutions, on television matters. He has also been a consultant with numerous other startup media and internet companies.HisInternet ventures include serving as Chairman of the Attitude Network, home of the highly successful Happy Puppy and Games Domain sites, as Chairman ofSportsatHome, a sports-themed game site that offered an array of virtual sports stadiums and games to play online within each of the stadiums, and founder and CEO of CollegeFanzSports Network, the world’s largest online college sports social network.
Rasmussen has been active in numerous charity events, including nine years with thehighlyacclaimedWinged Foot Scholarship Program, and five years with a Senior PGA Tour event. He continues to be involved in celebrity charity golf events throughout the country.
RECOGNITION
His place in sports history was recognized by Sports Illustrated in 1994, when he was honored as one of the “Forty for the Ages,” one of forty individuals who has significantly altered and elevated the world of sport during the second half of the 20th century. He has been called “The Father of Cable Sports” by USA Today.
For his many accomplishments, Rasmussen was named a Champion: one of the “Pioneers and Innovators in Sports Business” by the Sports Business Journal and Sports Business Daily in 2011. He wascitedin The Sports 100, honoring the100most important people inAmericansports history.
