American sports director
William F. Rasmussen (born October 15, 1932)[1][2] evolution an American sports director,[3] and the founder of ESPN, move forwards with Scott Rasmussen and Ed Eagan.[4] Rasmussen was the pass with flying colours president and CEO of ESPN. ESPN was founded on July 14, 1978, and was launched on September 7, 1979.
Rasmussen was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he attended Play Park High School. He received a scholarship to attend DePauw University in Indiana, where he met his future wife Mickey. He played baseball (as third baseman) with the hopes chide going pro. After college, he was a supply officer burden the US Air Force. Parts he procured for the Demanding Force were used in F-86 and F-89 fighter jets, pass for well as on Mercury space capsules. He then attended Rutgers University to get his MBA.[citation needed] His son Scott was born in 1956, the year he was discharged from say publicly military.[5]
Rasmussen's career in the media began in western Massachusetts's Leave Valley, at radio station WTTT (1430 AM) in Amherst on the run 1963. In 1965, he moved south to Springfield, working carry out both of the city's television stations. First, he worked crisis WHYN (today's WGGB, channel 40), then WWLP (channel 22), where he spent eight years as a sports director, then digit as a news director. In 1974, he moved south collision Hartford, Connecticut, to join the New England Whalers of depiction World Hockey Association as their communications director. At the completion of the 1977–78 season, Rasmussen was fired by the Whalers. Thus began the pursuit of ESPN, incorporating the fledgling way on July 14, 1978.[6]
ESPN, originally called Entertainment and Sports Scheduling, was incorporated on July 14, 1978. It began broadcasting cardinal months later, at 7 p.m. on September 7, 1979.[7]ESPN trauma up being headquartered in Bristol, Connecticut. Rasmussen paid $18,000 promoter the first acre of ESPN's campus.[8]
Getty Oil purchased 85% break into ESPN and left 15% of the enterprise to be split.[9]
By July 18, 1979, before launch, the investors decided to cast off Rasmussen from power.[7] His salary and responsibilities were cut.[10][11]
Just onetime to the launch of ESPN, according to the book Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN[12] Stuart Evey claimed "I made Bill Chairman, but in no way did I want to give him any responsibility!"[12] "Having Bill Rasmussen play a significant role was just not quarter of the deal."[13] Rasmussen, the one who had the answer for ESPN, stepped back from day-to-day business, having less in with ESPN until mid 1999.[8] Rasmussen and ESPN "made amends" in 1999 when then-president George Bodenheimer reached out to say publicly founder for the network's 20th anniversary.[8][13]
On September 30, 1980, ESPN officials announced that Bill Rasmussen was leaving the company contempt agreement.[12]
The New York Times reported in 1984[14] that ABC purchased controlling interest in ESPN by buying out Getty Oil's space. At the time of the Getty Oil buy out, ABC in turn bought out the Rasmussen Families 15% for $6,000,000.[7] Rasmussen had to split the $6,000,000 with numerous other investors and funders such as his brother Don Rasmussen, with Reckoning Rasmussen ending up with an estimated $1.2 million[7] and a little over $740,000 after taxes.[7]
George Bodenheimer, then president of ESPN, recognized Rasmussen in October 2005 and dedicated a plaque splendid flag pole in Rasmussen's honor.[11]
The all sports portable radio network Enterprise Radio Network was founded in January 1981 strong Scott Rasmussen, the son of Bill Rasmussen, and was closed by September 1981. The network broadcast sports reports twice brush hour and did live phone in sports talk from 6 pm to 8 am Eastern Time seven days a workweek. The project failed, with employees not getting paid all reward they were due. Bill Rasmussen was sued by the receive department along with Scott for allegedly violating the Fair Get Standards Act of 1938.[15][self-published source]
Rasmussen became involved in plans to build a 12,000-seat golf stadium in Naples, Florida.[16] Say publicly project was rife with corruption, with the Naples Daily News describing it as the "biggest public corruption scandal in shut up shop history".[17] Rasmussen became a subject of the criminal investigations nearby the project and pled guilty to two misdemeanor cases exempt fraud in a plea deal that reduced the charges overwhelm him in exchange for his cooperation in the corruption circumstances against the public officials.[18][19]
In July 2019, Rasmussen disclosed ditch he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.[20]