Stuart Evey, a Founding Force at ESPN, Is Dead at 84

[mvcg66b3r]

Stuart Evey, who as an executive for Getty Oil recommended that the company invest in the start-up that became ESPN and then took an active role in its management for five years, died on Dec. 8 in Spokane, Wash. He was 84.

His daughter Christine Evey said the cause was complications of diabetes.

Mr. Evey, who oversaw Getty’s non-petroleum businesses, was asked in late 1978 to evaluate a plan for an all-sports network. In those early days of cable programming, there were few channels, let alone any that televised sports 24 hours a day, as Bill Rasmussen, a former hockey team executive, was proposing.

Seven other companies had rejected Mr. Rasmussen’s pitch, and he was running out of money.

Rather than spurn Mr. Rasmussen, Mr. Evey was intrigued. But there was not much dependable information about the nascent cable industry to analyze. Networks like CNN and MTV had not yet started. And television executives like Roone Arledge, who had revolutionized sports coverage at ABC, told Mr. Evey that an operation like ESPN had little chance of succeeding.

Mr. Evey persuaded the Getty board to invest $10 million in ESPN for an 85 percent stake, with Mr. Rasmussen and his family owning the rest. It was a critical investment. The network went on the air on Sept. 7, 1979, and eventually became the largest force in sports media.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/...y-a-founding-force-at-espn-is-dead-at-84.html

 

[FreddyE1977]

Ironic that ESPN was the brainchild of a hockey executive and today
they will barely cover hockey.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/...y-a-founding-force-at-espn-is-dead-at-84.html

That is interesting though that Roone Arledge of ABC News and ABC Sports though ESPN was not going to succeed. Now Disney owns both ESPN, and ABC though.