ESPN co-founder Bill Rasmussen dies at 93 from the effects of Parkinson’s disease

LAND O’ LAKES, Fla. (AP) — Bill Rasmussen, who co-founded TV sports giant ESPN after hatching the idea for the world’s first all-sports cable network with his son, died Tuesday. He was 93.

ESPN historian Mike Soltys said Rasmussen died at his Florida home from the effects of Parkinson’s disease. Rasmussen announced in 2019 that he had been diagnosed with the degenerative disease in 2014.

“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 stated in an official note. “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 and his son Scott came up with the idea of a network carrying sports around the clock, and it would revolutionize Americans’ TV-watching habits. But the Rasmussens didn’t stick around long. They were forced out after only a year by ESPN majority owner Getty Oil.