ESPN co-founder Bill Rasmussen dies at 93

(Gray News) - Bill Rasmussen, the co-founder of ESPN, died on Tuesday. He was 93.

The sports network said he died from the effects of Parkinson’s disease, according to a press release.

In the late 1970s, Rasmussen was fired as communications director of the New England Whalers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He maxed out his credit card, and with his $9,000 advance, acquired valuable space on a communications satellite.

He then founded ESPN, along with his son Scott, which would become known as the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” in 1979 as a cable channel based in Connecticut.

“Bill was a remarkable man – a visionary and an innovator who conceived the idea of a network entirely devoted to sports,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “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.”

Rasmussen was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2025.