Bill Rasmussen Credit: Sports Heaven
By Matt Yoder on

ESPN co-founder Bill Rasmussen has passed away at the age of 93.

Rasmussen brought his vision of a 24/7 all-sports network to life in 1979. Even though he left the network the next year, his impact in helping launch the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network has far surpassed anyone’s reasonable expectations for what was possible.

In the wake of his passing, several pillars of ESPN’s past and present stepped forward to pay tribute.

“Bill was a remarkable man – a visionary and an innovator who conceived the idea of a network entirely devoted to sports,” said ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro in a statement released by ESPN. “Quite simply, none of us would be here today if it wasn’t for Bill’s passion and all the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit he put into building ESPN in the late 1970s – key aspects of our company culture that still carry on to this day.”

“He was such a grateful person, and every sports fan can be grateful for Bill. He wasn’t a glass half-full guy; his glass was always overflowing with optimism. He greeted everyone with a smile, and we can all smile knowing Bill’s legacy,” ESPN legend Chris Berman added in the ESPN announcement.

Another ESPN original and titan of the network, Bob Ley, joined SportsCenter to share his thoughts on Rasmussen’s impact and his passing. He spoke fondly about the founder of the worldwide leader of sports not just from the perspective of what he meant to the media and cable worlds, but all of sports as well.

“To be in a room with Bill was to feel his infectious enthusiasm, the energy he brought. This was a network he conceived of in the innermost ring of hell, which is Friday afternoon traffic Waterbury I-84, he and Scott in the car. If you’re a Nutmegger, you know what I’m talking about with that traffic. Who kept it alive, blowing that campfire, maxing out his credit cards at one point to make sure we got up on the satellite. The Los Angeles Lakers wouldn’t be worth $12 billion if early ESPN, this acorn, had not flowered in creating the genesis for the sports culture that is now so important for this country and this world. And so much of that comes back to Bill Rasmussen.” Ley said.

Scott Rasmussen paid tribute to his father in a social media post, reflecting on the very beginnings of the network they helped to launch.

Other past and present ESPN personalities and staffers paid their respects to Rasmussen on Tuesday.

To help remember the life of Bill Rasmussen, ESPN2 is re-airing the documentary on the birth of ESPN that premiered earlier this year.

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