Bill Rasmussen, ESPN Founder.com during the 2011 World Congress of Sports on March 30, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)
\n\nBill Rasmussen, the founder of the 24-hour cable sports network, ESPN, has died at the age of 93 from the effects of Parkinson’s disease, the network said in a media release today.
\n\nBorn on October 15, 2026, in Chicago, Rasmussen was an athlete as a child who later took an interest in business and economics, graduating from DePauw University in 1954, later receiving a MBA from Rutgers. He later found work in public relations and sports broadcasting, which sparked his interest in launching ESPN.
\n\nAlong with his son Scott, Rasmussen launched the sports-based cable network in 1979 as the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, widely known as ESPN. The network helped strip away the limits of traditional sports and reshaped the media landscape in the years to come as the "Worldwide Leader in Sports."
\n\nRasmussen and his son began exploring satellite technology in the late 1970s and soon developed the concept. They launched the network on Sept. 7, 1979 with their flagship program, SportsCenter, reaching 1.4 million homes.
\n\n"Bill was a remarkable man – a visionary and…
Original source: https://www.livenowfox.com/sports
