Next week ESPN launches their new digital center that will once again push the network into a new age. Now that ESPN is a true worldwide empire worth tens of billions of dollars and one of the most powerful brands in the world, it’s easy to forget the network’s humble beginnings.
For our weekly Throwback Thursday, here’s an amazing video the network posted from September, 1980 when ESPN became a 24/7 network at the dawn of its second year on the air. Original anchor George Grande made the announcement and Jim Simpson ran down the network’s first year highlights including college football and tennis…
At the time, ESPN employed 25o people in Bristol, Connecticut and George Grande thanked Getty Oil as the network’s parent company. Now ESPN employs over 4,000 people in Bristol and has enough money to buy a small continent worth of oil.
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