ESPN book review

I recently just finished reading the book about the history of everybody's favorite sports network, ESPN. The book is called ESPN: Those Guys Have All The Fun and it's written by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales. It's a pretty solid read albeit a long one. It's not a traditional book, it's an oral history. It's 745 pages of interviews and anecdotes from the employees and anchors of The Worldwide Leader of Sports.


The book talks about 9 steps that led to ESPN's rise to world dominance:
Step 1- Bill and Scott Rasmussen's (the father and son who came up with the idea for an all sports network) decision to buy a transponder satellite in 1978. That transponder would allow them to broadcast their show all over the United Sates to houses that have cable.

Step 2- The Getty oil company's investment of 15 million dollars into ESPN in May of 1979. That investment allowed them to have some money to spend. Also, Getty at that time was a huge company and ESPN being involved with legitimized them in a way.

Step 3- The advancement of a duel revenue stream in March of 1983.

Step 4- Coverage of the America's Cup in 1987. The America's Cup was a yacht race. Airing the race on ESPN opened up new viewership and it was the first big event that ESPN helped produce and air. By doing that it would help ESPN be able to show that you can air big time sporting events on the station. ESPN has gone on to have football, baseball, basketball, and hockey all air on their channel.

Step 5- In the same year, ESPN acquired the rights to air ESPN games. This wasn't a full TV deal, that came down the road, but it showed they could air big time major sports.

Step 6- In 1989, ESPN and Major League Baseball hooked up with 4 year deal worth 400 million dollars. In my opinion, baseball is usually the game that ESPN airs and produces the best (except with Joe Morgan). Also by having MLB on their network, it helped launch Baseball Tonight which is one of ESPN's most stable studio shows.

Step 7- The classic "This Is Sportscenter" commercials. You know the ones, with the athletes and the mascots hanging around and mingling with the anchors at the ESPN studios in Bristol. The old ones are so classic. The commercials became so popular that every now and then they air a show that's all Sportscenter commercials.

Step 8- ESPN finally getting a full season of NFL games in 1998. Through Sunday Night Football and now Monday Night Football, games on ESPN have been memorable. The announcers have struggled ( Tony Kornheiser? Paul Maguire, I couldn't stand) but they've had some classic games. The Joe Namath/ Suzy Kolber game is memorable for a different reason but they've had Farve lighting up the Packers with the Vikes. The Pats keeping the perfect season alive in Baltimore. Even though lately the games have sucked, ESPN is a good place to watch a football game.

Step 9- The ninth and final step to ESPN's rise to world dominance is the creating ans airing the SportsCentury. My opinion is that the best things that ESPN airs is the documentaries. The SportsCentury series was so well done. Some of the scenes in them are ultimate goosebump scenes. The Bob Cousey part in the Bill Russell, where he tears up thinking about how he could have helped Russell adjust to life in Boston as a black man, is one of my personal favorites. And to to this day with the tremendously well done 30 for 30 films. The Len Bias story, Reggie Miller vs the Knicks, The Fab Five, Four Days in October are just some of my favorites.


Say what you want about ESPN, and I certainly have, that their bias, that their too cocky, that their too powerful in the world of sports, but you cant doubt that their one of the the most powerful companies in the world. How they built the empire is a great success story. I enjoyed this book and if you like to read and enjoy sports and business I recommend reading it.