September 7, 1979: ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, goes on the air, from a studio in Bristol, Connecticut, 20 miles southwest of Hartford, 120 miles southwest of Boston, and 103 miles northeast of Midtown Manhattan.
The location was chosen for its proximity to its founders: Bill Rasmussen and Ed Eagan. Rasmussen had recently been fired as the communications manager of the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers -- who, in the interim, would become the NHL's Hartford Whalers. Eagan, then an eye doctor and an insurance agent, had the idea for a monthly cable TV show covering Connecticut sports, and asked Rasmussen if the Whalers would be interested in involvement.
After his firing, Rasmussen went back to Eagan and they decided to make the idea bigger. At first, they would cover the most popular teams in the State of Connecticut: The Whalers, minor-league baseball's Bristol Red Sox, and the teams of the University of Connecticut. Al Parinello, who was working on cable-TV technology with RCA, parent company of NBC, that they were still thinking too small: With the growth expected in cable in the 1980s, they could go national from the get-go.
They originally wanted to build their studio in Plainville, just to the east of Bristol, but the town had a law prohibiting satellite dishes. Neighboring Bristol had no such law, and it had a parcel of land available for a mere $18,000 -- about $74,000 in 2022 money.
On September 7, 1979, at 7:00 PM Eastern Time, the 1st ESPN program aired. It was what remains their signature show, the video-highlight show SportsCenter, anchored by Lee Leonard and George Grande. Leonard began: "If you're fan, if you're a fan, what you'll see in the next minutes, hours and days to follow may convince you you've gone to Sports Heaven." That may have been an exaggeration, but the 30,000 people who tuned in loved it. That audience grew significantly in the coming years.
Their timing was great: Not only was the rising technology in their favor, but so was sports. In March, the NCAA Final between Magic Johnson's Michigan State and Larry Bird's Indiana State was the most-watched college basketball game of all time, and it still is. It sparked interest in the college game, and ESPN was able to take advantage of that.
On December 5, 1979, ESPN broadcast its 1st college basketball game. DePaul University beat the University of Wisconsin, 90-77 at DePaul's Alumni Hall in Chicago. Calling it were veteran announcer Joe Boyle and recently-fired Detroit Pistons and former University of Detroit coach Dick Vitale. Vitale soon became synonymous with ESPN, with his many catchphrases and his infectious enthusiasm for college hoops. You couldn't talk about ESPN without mentioning Dickie V, baby!
A 1982 Supreme Court ruling made it easier to broadcast college football games, and ESPN was able to take advantage of that. The growing popularity of the NFL meant that, at first ESPN couldn't broadcast their games, but they could broadcast shows about the NFL, including with former players as panelists.
ESPN broadcast its 1st NHL game in 1980, its 1st NBA game in 1982, its 1st NFL game in 1987, its 1st Major League Baseball game in 1990, and Major League Soccer from its 1996 inception.
In 1984, ABC bought ESPN. In 1996, the Walt Disney Company bought ABC, and thus ESPN. Disney began the process of eliminating the redundancy of having ABC Sports and ESPN, completing it in 2006, when Monday Night Football was moved from ABC to ESPN.
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September 7, 1979 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played that night:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 6-0 at Tiger Stadium. Bruce Robbins left the game with an injury in the 3rd inning, and Jack Billingham went the rest of the way, completing a 6-hit shutout. Bucky Dent had 2 of those hits. Ken Clay was the losing pitcher.
* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-4 at Shea Stadium. Willie "Pops" Stargell, on the way to leading his "Family" to the World Championship, went 1-for-4. Craig Swan pitched 10 innings, outdoing Pirate starter John Candelaria. But Dave Parker won the game with an RBI single in the top of the 14th inning.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Jim Palmer left the game after 5 innings, with Sammy Stewart becoming the winning pitcher. All the runs were scored on solo home runs, by Eddie Murray, Gary Roenicke and Jim Rice.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-0 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Gene Tenace and Dave Winfield hit home runs. Eric Rasmussen pitched a 6-hit shutout.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 9-8 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Johnny Bench went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Pete Rose went 1-for-4 with a walk. So did Mike Schmidt, who added an RBI.
* The Texas Rangers beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-4 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Lou Brock, in his final month as an active player, went 2-for-4.
* The California Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Rod Carew went 2-for-5, in support of Nolan Ryan. This would be their only season as teammates. Robin Yount went 0-for-3 with a walk. Paul Molitor went 1-for-4.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 9-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum. An error by Greg Pryor gave the South Siders the win in the bottom of the 10th inning. Only 4,136 people paid to see it, as the A's were nearing the end of a 108-loss season.
* And the Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-2 at the Kingdome in Seattle. George Brett went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
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