ESPN Founder Bill Rasmussen Dies at 93
Bill Rasmussen, the man who founded ESPN and in doing so created the world's first 24-hour sports television network, has died at the age of 93. He passed away on August 18, 2026, at his home in Florida from complications of Parkinson's disease, according to ESPN's official pressroom ESPN Pressroom.
His full name was William F. Rasmussen. Before ESPN, he was a Connecticut sportscaster and the communications director for the New England Whalers, a professional hockey team. He lost that job — and from that dismissal built something that reshaped how the world watches sports.
In 1979, Rasmussen and his son Scott launched the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. The idea started small: a cable channel covering only Connecticut sports. Many Connecticut cable operators were sceptical of the plan, according to the Hartford Courant Hartford Courant. Rasmussen pushed past the doubt. He acquired satellite space — the transmission technology that let a signal reach cable systems across the country — using a personal credit card Deadline. ESPN went on air on September 7, 1979. Rasmussen served as its first CEO.
What started as a regional concept became a national network. Today ESPN reaches millions of homes across the United States and around the world, covering every major sport, around the clock.
ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro issued a statement after Rasmussen's death, calling him a visionary and an innovator Deadline. Rasmussen was nicknamed "the George Washington of ESPN" The Hollywood Reporter. In December 2025, he was inducted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame alongside Lee Corso and Marc Herklotz ESPN Pressroom.
Rasmussen revealed in 2019 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2014 Deadline. The following year, he announced a collaboration with the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the organisation dedicated to Parkinson's research ESPN Pressroom.
A documentary about the network's origins, Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN, was produced earlier in 2026. Scott Rasmussen, Bill's son and ESPN co-founder, reflected on the network's beginnings ahead of its premiere in April ESPN Pressroom.
For anyone who has watched a late-night highlight reel, a college football Saturday, or a live broadcast beamed from a stadium across an ocean, the thread runs back to one man who lost a job, charged a satellite transponder to a credit card, and put sports on television around the clock for the first time.
