(+1) 234 567 21

The evolution of ESPN: 35 years in the making

•

Eyes Of A Generation.com

The Start Of ESPN…A Hometown Newspaper Article From The Birstol Press

Today there are only seventeen of the original staffers that started with ESPN in 1979, and this story is told by three of them. Thanks to ESPN cameraman Ryan Balton for sending this along. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

By the way…Bristol, Connecticut is where ESPN is located. Until a few years back, I didn’t know where their HQ was either.

http://www.bristolpress.com/BP-Bristol+News/334021/humble-start-espn-celebrates-its-beginning-40-years-ago

The evolution of ESPN: 35 years in the making

BRISTOL — When ESPN went on the air 35 years ago, it had one building, a trailer full of production equipment and lots of mud everywhere.

Source

18 responses to “The evolution of ESPN: 35 years in the making”

  1. Jay Beckman

    I remember when ESPN = 1 person on the third bench with a Sure Mixer and a router to get off the home feed by way of a locked off shot.

  2. Dwight Sturtevant

    Chris Berman is to ESPN as howard cosell was to ABC

  3. Dwight Sturtevant

    Hitachi SK-70 these were alsways needing love by there engineers

  4. Charlie King

    Yes, Tom. I have worked a lot of ESPN Sports Center shows and the pay seemed to be slow in coming.

  5. Brandon F.G.

    There’s a really good book from the early-2000s called “ESPN: The Uncensored History” that profiles the network’s origins and how it gained credibility in the early-80s. Has a bunch of interviews with current and former personalities and personnel as well.

  6. Tom Edwards

    The freelancers in the field used to call it the Extra Slow Paying Network.

  7. Robert Barker

    I always think of the American Basketball Association when I see ESPN went on the air in the late 70s. The ABA collapsed in the summer of ’76. If ESPN had been around, desperate for sports programming, the ABA might have survived.

  8. Jack Gallagher

    I worked numerous sports events in New York as a freelancer for the then “budding” ESPN. Saint Bonaventure, Syracuse, Cornell, and various skiing events in the Catskills and a even a NBA Tennis Tournament that was capped off with an evening basketball game. It really was a great time and a chance for a young broadcast engineer to learn quite a bit about the industry. The extra money wasn’t too bad either! I’ll also mention I’ve worked at a local New York station with two of the ESPN veterans Bill Pido and Karl Ravich.

  9. Fernando Menichini

    Hitachi SK 70

  10. Pat Alder

    A good part of my graduation class, the last one at Grahm Jr. College, went to ESPN and C-Span.

  11. David Jackino

    I know Bob Ley (on-air) staff goes back to day 1. Not sure about Chris Berman.

  12. Art Hackett

    Hitachi?

  13. Kent Ayers

    I sure do remember running those Hitachi SK-70’s on ESPN’s first remote trucks. Was always good to have a “tweaker” on you.

  14. Thomas Grassia

    SportsCenter . . . The death nail of CNN Sports Illustrated.

  15. Martin Gould

    Scotty Connal’s son, Bruce, was a classmate of mine at Ithaca College. In the fall of 1978 he told me he was going to work for his dad at a new company he was starting: a 24-hour cable channel for sports. I was a budding sportscaster, so he asked me if I was interested in going with him. I told him, “hell no! Who’d want to live in Bristol!” My bad. But, a lot of my IC buddies wound up working there, which is why you often see the Syracuse mascot getting assaulted in the “This is Sportscenter” promos.

  16. Rick Zach

    And Ted Phillips who liked this picture… Almost worked there at startup… but declined.

  17. Rick Zach

    Funny, I went to College with Jeff Israel. And he’s still there!

  18. James Shea

    I remember going to ESPN’s Connecticut facility circa 1981 to shoot a segment for a documentary about the future of television. At the time, the cable channel known as the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network aired more than sports material.

Leave a Reply