ESPN: A Most Unlikely Success Story
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February 27, 2009
The greatest moment in modern sports history was not Bobby Thompson’s home run (“The Giants win the pennant!”), or George Forman’s shocking knock out of Joe Frazier (“Down goes Frazier!”), or even the U.S. Olympic team’s Miracle on Ice (“Do you believe in miracles?”). No, the greatest moment in modern sports occurred on August 16, 1978 -- in a traffic jam. That’s right, a traffic jam. When Bill Rasmussen and his son Scott were stuck on Interstate-84 near Waterbury Connecticut, Bill turned to his son and uttered a few words that would change sports forever: Why not start a cable network that broadcasts nothing but sports, 24 hours a day? It doesn’t sound crazy to us -- but it did back then. In the seventies, every city had thriving daily papers with thick sports sections, ABC’s Wide World of Sports covered all the contests you couldn’t see on the Game of the Week, and Sports Illustrated was the national authority, with more than three million readers. Who needed a 24 hour sports channel? The Rasmussens figured: you did. They based their new network in tiny Bristol, Connecticut, and announced their grand plans at a press conference they held a Holiday Inn ballroom. Four people showed up. They called their creation the Entertainment and Sports Programming network. We call it ESPN. One year later the Rasmussens fulfilled their promise by airing 24 hours of live sports coverage. True, they stretched the definition of “sports” so far it included yachting, parachuting, and model-plane racing – because that’s all they could afford. The same year, just a few hours away, a young man graduated from Brown University. He was supposed to go to law school or Wall Street like his friends, but instead he decided to pursue his crazy dream of being a sportscaster. He knew the networks would never let him in the front door., so he took a chance on one-month old ESPN – and they took a chance on him. The man’s name? Chris Berman, the face of the network. He once told me, “If I had applied to ESPN even one year later, I would never have gotten a job. Back then we only had eight dishes – and six of them were for eating.” The station couldn’t afford real highlight clips -- or real sportscasters, for that matter. Instead, they constantly ran their in-studio update show, “Sportscenter,” and relied on young, cheap talent like Berman, who filled the time making up nicknames for players. It started with John “Mayberry RFD,” which led to Tom “Leave it to” Seaver, Rick “See ya later” Aguilera, and Kirk “Roto” Rueter. Berman got away with it at first simply because nobody was watching. But his irreverent, passionate style stuck – and is now ESPN’s trademark. Berman and his coworkers were having a blast, but they knew ESPN could be gone the next day. Only after ESPN got the rights to televise NFL games, in 1987, was Berman convinced they were here to stay. But not Time-Life, the publisher of Sports Illustrated, which once had a chance to buy ESPN for peanuts, but passed, convinced it was beneath them. Big mistake. Today, ESPN has six networks here in the U.S. and 34 overseas. They broadcast 65 sports, 24 hours a day in 16 languages, and in more than 194 countries. They also have a radio station, a magazine, and a website, plus ESPN Mobile wireless, ESPN On Demand, ESPN Interactive and ESPN In The Afterlife. Okay, I’m kidding about that last one – so far, anyway. The ESPN empire now reaches over 100 million people every week. That’s a third of the U.S. population. But it goes deeper than that. In a recent column, political commentator George Will listed life’s three elemental needs: “Loving, being loved, and ESPN.” More than two dozen couples have named their children after the station. That’s right, there are kids running around out there with the name Espin. There are no records of any kids named Sports Illustrated.
Copyright © 2009, Michigan Radio
More bad news for SI, I let my subscription expire this week after 24 years...
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M-Pharm (if that's a close enough approximation of your name),
Sad to say, you're not alone. I still believe Sports Illustrated provides the best sports writing available, but it no longer has the hold on the public it once did. Tempting to imagine what the world of sports journalism would be like if SI had been smart enough to buy up ESPN when it had the chance.
-JUB
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Hi, John. A couple things about your piece on ESPN: You may not quite be old enough to remember this, but channel 50 in Detroit started and billed itself as "the nation's first all-sports TV station" in the mid-60s. That's one of the reasons I became such a huge Michigan fan. They desperately needed live programming so they cut a cheapo deal with the University of Michigan to televise almost every basketball game from Yost. This was the Cazzie Russell-Bill Buntin era and I never missed a game. They also did daily live horse racing shows from the Detroit tracks, the Pistons and the Wings. I don't remember Michigan State being on there at all. I know they showed some U-D games and a lot of high school basketball. Larry Adderley was there at the beginning, just to name one guy. They couldn't make that much money at it, unfortunately, and it didn't last. An old friend of mine and I still laugh about the Alliance TennaRotor commercials that the very wooden Gordie Howe and Norm Ullman would do.
Also, the ESPN founders started a radio network in 1981, based in Connecticut and called "Enterprise Radio." Lasted only nine months. I was on the air the whole time, flying in from Detroit every weekend. Made some great friends in the business whom I've seen many, many times over the years. The Rasmussens were assholes. They lied to us every step of the way. We didn't see Bill much but Scott was there almost every day. They still owe a lot of us money!
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Not too long ago, I lived in Northern Japan for 4 years. I had an absolute blast. I did my best to fit in and not be the stereotypical American overseas.
One compromise I couldn't make though is being away from college football. When I got a dish for the house (one of the benefits of living up north; if I lived in Tokyo, I'd have an apartment the size of a shoebox), I was really excited to see ESPN on the list of offerings.
Little did I know ESPN in the Far East is nothing but all the cricket & rugby one can dare to handle.
Fortunately, a we'd get a delay of Michigan football or even the Red Wings (ESPN still had the NHL at the time) every now and again.
Good times!
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Hey Bob,
Thanks for posting this. I didn't know either story, about Detroit's stab at the all-sports format nor ESPN's early foray into radio. Great stuff.
And I confess I'm a little relieved, in some weird way, that I don't have to feel unduly sorry for the Rasmussens having their creation gobbled up by Disney, et al. Your testimony here is loud and clear!
Nice to hear from a legend.
-John
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Hey Chris,
When I lived in Indiana and Princeton, the things that would make me pine for Arborville were Bob Seger songs and Michigan football.
Glad you could find at least one of those in Nippon!
-JUB
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The ESPN story brings back great memories, as I recall both MTV and ESPN were in their infancy about the same time. Being just a few years out of college there was nothing better than coming home from a night on the town to sit down with a half-gallon of ice cream to flip between the tunes and 24-hour sports...Life sure was simple back then.
Among my favorite "Bermanisms" are:
-Timmy "Torrential" Raines
-Bert "Be home" Blyleven
With all the negativity in the press I look forward to reading your weekly blog.
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Much thanks, Chris.
I hope it's obvious I'm having a good time doing this -- and the chance to interact with readers and listeners (mainly through the comments, but also by watching the subscription numbers go up) is something new mainstream media doesn't offer.
I'm probably just a few years younger than you are, and remember very well watching nothing but MTV and ESPN in the dorm lounge. Music videos... on TV! Amazing! And 24 hour sports! So what if it's badminton! Heady times were those!
You've also hit upon my favorite Bermanism: Blyleven's.
Question: What would have happened if the cameraman had not started laughing out loud after Berman's first one, "Mayberry RFD"?
Scary to think about!
-JUB
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