ESPN Founder Bill Rasmussen Is Keynote Speaker at Azusa Pacific University’s Amplify: Your Brand Conference, Friday, September 21st and Saturday, September 22nd
Azusa, CA – September
21, 2012 – Bill Rasmussen, the legendary
entrepreneur who founded ESPN, will deliver
the keynote address at this weekend’s “Amplify: Your Brand Conference”
presented by the School of Business and Management at Azusa Pacific University,
in the suburban Los Angeles area.
The
two-day event, the first in a series of “Amplify” conferences presented by the
School of Business and Management, features prominent Azusa Pacific University
alumni as well as industry leaders in targeted sessions on how to expand a
brand’s reach and build connections. Rasmussen will speak on Friday night at
an alumni-only dinner on campus at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time, and will deliver the
conference’s keynote address on Saturday at 9 a.m. Pacific Time in Wilden Hall
on campus. During his presentation, Rasmussen
will tell the story of the birth of ESPN
and the creation of a global sports enterprise.
He will also speak about leadership and the skills necessary to create
such a successful global brand icon.
In
Rasmussen’s presentation, the
audience is given a rare opportunity to hear and feel the stories of a man who
was considered by the three major television networks at the time (ABC, NBC
& CBS) a dreamer and all-around “crazy man” to even think that he could
compete with them.
Jim
Miller, the co-author of the recent best-selling book, “Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN,” recently
told John Ourand of The Sports Business
Journal that “this is a guy whose idea gave birth
to, arguably, the most successful media story of our time.”
Try
to imagine the world without ESPN
and Sports Center, and for many, it
is impossible. It is safe to say that Rasmussen
changed the face of sports, and the face of television. His brainstorm for a 24-hour cable sports
television station, born out of adversity, has become the Worldwide Leader in
Sports, ESPN. A former radio and television sports
broadcaster, Rasmussen had been the
Whalers Communications Director, but when the Whalers didn’t make the 1978 WHA
playoffs, Rasmussen and others on
staff were fired. His idea for an all-sports cable TV network captured his
imagination, and he incorporated the fledgling network on July 14, 1978. He had
already begun to seek out cable television companies, sponsors, investors and
partners. With an idea that was truly ahead of its time, and running out of
cash, Rasmussen found one investor who
believed in the concept in February, 1979, and by September 7, 1979, ESPN was on the air for the first time,
14 months from Rasmussen’s moment of
inspiration.
A life-long entrepreneur and sports fan, Rasmussen’s innovations in advertising,
sports and broadcasting are numerous, including the creation of ESPN,
the concepts for “Sports Center,”
wall-to-wall coverage of NCAA regular-season and “March Madness” college basketball, and coverage of the College World Series. He broke the advertising barrier to cable
television by signing Anheuser Busch to the largest cable TV advertising
contract ever.
Named
“The Father of Cable Sports” by USA Today,
Rasmussen was named to The Sports
100, honoring the 100 most important people in American Sports History. His place in sports history was further
recognized by Sports Illustrated in
1994, when he was honored as one of the “40 for the Ages,” one of 40
individuals who has significantly altered and elevated the world of sport in
the last half of the 20th Century.
Rasmussen was named to the
2011 class of “The Champions: Pioneers & Innovators in Sports Business,” an
award from the Sports Business Journal
and the Sports Business Daily
recognizing the architects and builders of sports.
Rasmussen
is
the author of the best-selling book, “Sports
Junkies Rejoice! The Birth of ESPN” (available in paperback and e-book at
ESPNFounder.com). He is a gifted raconteur and a popular public
speaker discussing American entrepreneurship, innovation, and the birth of ESPN, and a frequent guest on radio and
television shows. His recent appearances
include nationally-syndicated radio shows “Sports
Byline USA with Ron Barr”, “The
Dennis Miller Show” and the FOX News Channel’s “Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld.”
This weekend’s appearances at Azusa Pacific
continue Rasmussen’s 2011-2012 national
speaking tour which has included recent engagements at the University of
Connecticut, University of Kansas, Rutgers University, The Wharton School of
the University of Pennsylvania, University of South Carolina, Wichita State
University and Auburn University. Rasmussen has also recently spoken to
audiences at a number of private, corporate events, in addition to speaking at Northwestern
University’s Kellogg School of Management, Villanova University, Princeton
University, University of Florida School of Law and The Center for Sports
Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, among others.
Additional
information about Rasmussen is
available at http://www.ESPNFounder.com. You can also follow Rasmussen on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/ESPN-Founder-Bill-Rasmussen/124610977602209)
and on Twitter (@Bill_ESPN).