Bill Rasmussen Founded ESPN and Left a Year Later. It Was Long Enough to Change TV Forever

Bill Rasmussen set out to create a local sports channel in his home state of Connecticut. Instead, he changed the global television landscape. Rasmussen, the founder of ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) died following a lengthy illness on Tuesday. He was 93. When asked about the legacy of his long-ago boss, Bob Ley, SportsCenter‘s first full-time anchor, opened with a very recent anecdote to describe the last 47 years of sports media: “The Lakers wouldn’t be worth $12 billion rather for Bill Rasmussen,” Ley told The Hollywood Reporter. Talk about a full-circle moment. Rasmussen was a pioneer of the satellite television delivery system when he launched ESPN in 1979 — it was just last week when the former CEO (twice!) of ESPN’s current parent company, Disney, purchased the