During his appearance at UT Arlington, ESPN co-founder Bill Rasmussen - one of television's greatest innovators - shared how he created one of the leading global brands and how he proved his detractors wrong in the process. Rasmussen spoke Thursday night in the second installment of the Maverick Speaker Series.

In 1979, Rasmussen and his brother launched ESPN - the world's first 24-hour television network - on the University of Connecticut campus. "The Worldwide Leader in Sports" is now carried by stations on all seven continents, and is known for being the leading sports media brand.

MyArlingtonTX.com's Reggie Lewis had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Rasmussen, who spoke about his original idea for ESPN, the proliferation of sports networks and the potential for UT Arlington to create its own television network.

How did you come up with the idea for ESPN and what were some of the challenges you encountered when launching the business?
Actually, I was a hockey announcer and was fired along with everyone else on the staff on Memorial Day weekend 1978. I had been scheduled to have a conversation about doing a TV show that would be circulated during the summertime talking about the New England Whalers' [of the World Hockey Association) past and the Whalers' present. Well, I called the guy and told him 'I don't work for [the Whalers] anymore and I don't think you'll want to talk to me." But he said 'Come on down, we'll chat about some things.' And he was working in an office at the local cable system, United Cable , and we just sat and batted around a few ideas about doing some things in the state of Connecticut on some of the cable systems. Compared to Texas, Connecticut is the size of a postage stamp, as you know, and they only had five operating cable systems in the entire state. So as we talked about it, we incorporated some conversation with the vice president of the cable system where this guy had an office. He said 'You should look at satellite, that's the next coming thing.' So one thing led to another and we met with a gentleman from RCA and he said - back then there were no 24-hour networks - 'Nobody uses a satellite for 24 hour a day.' And so in our conversations, he was offering all these things you can do at night, in the afternoon, over the weekend, and then he said 'And we have one [transponder] that we don't list anymore because no one has ever bought one-a 24-hour network.' That's all you have to say to me- it's not been done before - and I say, 'Why can't we do that?'
I had actually grown up in sports and had done sports announcing for a long time, and I had actually experimented with a half-hour television show in hockey in Hartford (CT). It was called "Sports Only" and that's all we talked about was Hartford sports. Unfortunately, Hartford doesn't have many sports teams to talk about and the show only lasted six months, but it really sparked an idea because for a half-hour of sports that weren't very interesting, the phone lines were always busy. And so it planted an idea that just marinated, as they say, in the brain cells, and 24 hours a day popped into my mind. Fortunately we had those folks, the RCA people, who couldn't give away satellite time. There weren't many earth stations around at that time. Nobody wanted to make the investment, so they were anxious to find a partner that was willing to be a 24-hour a day partner, and we actually became the first 24-hour network because of that. Once we started it, it became an obsession every waking hour until we went on the air. We had to find financing and advertising and customers, but the technology piece fell into place first. We had to convince the cable industry that it was a good idea, and we did, so it finally took off. (Rasmussen bought the round-the-clock transponder for $30,000 in 1978. Within two years, the same transponders were being sold for $10 million each.)

What do think about the proliferation of sports networks in America, especially those being started by athletic conferences and colleges?
I'm a bad guy to ask, probably, because when we sold ESPN in 1984, the Big Ten hired me and the first thing we did was put together, what was at that time, an ad hoc network. We did Saturday afternoon football games on about 90 stations from Maine to Hawaii. We set up a basketball network for the Big Ten throughout the Midwest. So it seemed inevitable to me that would happen. I didn't think it would grow to the degree that it has. I mean, the Longhorn Network, for example, is one university. And now you've got the SEC, the PAC-12, and of course, the Big Ten Network, which is the biggest of the conference networks. I marvel at it all because when we first started talking about 24-hour sports, the most common question was, 'Who's going to watch sports 24 hours a day?' They didn't get it right away. No one was suggesting that people would watch sports 24 hours a day. We were saying 'When you feel like it, you can watch sports, whatever time of the day it is.'

People here in North Texas love sports. Do you think UT Arlington has the potential to create its very own network?
Let me tell you what we did about three years ago. We did the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) Game of the Week. We streamed through a company in New York at the time. Streaming is much easier to do right now. We did NAIA games every week for a full season, about 15-18 games. At the time, NAIA had about 10-12 conferences. Equipment today is miniaturized. The cost has come down greatly. We put together a remote truck and Mercedes Sprinter (box van). We had two Sprinters on the road doing games. It was very economical. I wouldn't be surprised, given the enthusiasm Texas has for sports, that UT Arlington would be able to do something similar. That would be a great project to undertake. Someone would have to put together some plans, facts & figures together, but it's not nearly as expensive as starting a big network like The Longhorn Network where you're trying to go 24 hours a day. Online... more and more people are going online these days. Maybe we can have some conversations when I'm done there, who knows. That would be kind of fun.

What's the energy like at one of your appearances?
You haven't seen what I do, but it's basically a show. It's got video and slides and pictures, and me talking and everything like that. The Q&A is what I enjoy the most. It really gives everyone a chance to ask creative questions. If I can stir a little bit of imagination, maybe I can stir a little bit of action. If one idea comes out of it, that's great.