Evey chronicles the history of ESPN and its success

Founding chairman of ESPN and Spokane native Stuart Evey spoke Jan. 31 at EWU on the creation of the sports media empire and finding personal success, an event sponsored by the EWU Public Relations Student Society of America club.

After his lecture in front of 300 people, Evey signed copies of his book, Creating An Empire: ESPN, A No-Holds-Barred Story of Power, Ego, Money and Vision That Transformed A Culture.

What once started as a lowly satellite feed in 1979 has grown into four distinct channels.

“I had no idea what ESPN would be like today,” Evey said. “No one thought that it would be like this.”

Evey got involved in 1978, when, as an executive of Getty Oil, he had the idea pitched to him by Bill Rasmussen.

“I got involved when the satelite option opened up,” Evey said. “There really wasn’t any industry like it and it was a big risk to even think of taking.”

Evey said, for broadcasting talent, ESPN did not have a set standard when the sports network first started.

“It was high risk for anyone to be involved in,” Evey said. “No one knew how it was going to work, whether it was going to survive, and the people who came on board really had to take a shot.”

One of the early broadcasters for ESPN was the late Tom Mees, who Evey remembers as a solid anchor in his day. In 1996, Mees drowned at the age of 46 in his swimming pool while attempting to save his daughter.

“It was an unfortunate thing that happened,” Evey said. “Tom was really a solid member of the early group, playing a major role during his time and would still be playing one today had that accident not happened.”

Evey believes that the outrageousness that ESPN thrives on today is no different than programming featured back in the early 80’s.

“Jimmy V and Dick Vitale were different,” Evey said. “Now Michael Irvin goes on and does the same thing and no one questions it.”

Evey said he does see a culture shift in the type of programming with regards to the growth of sports commentary.

“That’s the progress of our culture today,” Evey said. “People in sports, take Terrell Owens for example, he’s hip, he’s new, and you’ve got people who are constantly trying to be different, to stand out in order to make the highlights.”

Evey said that he helped hire Chet Simmons of NBC Sports in 1979 in order to establish some credibility within the spectating community.

“We had to take a risk of what we broadcast,” Evey said.

“It at first didn’t grow like we thought it would, we did all we could in the first few years just to stay in business.”

Evey credits the succession of ownership with saving ESPN and continuing its growth as a media sports empire.

“ABC brought in the broadcasting knowledge that we initially lacked,” Evey said.

“Then Disney bought ABC, which meant they acquired ESPN. Disney built a cross-promotion of sports franchises with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Anaheim Angels which was unprecedented.”

ESPN will continue to survive as its control over programming increases, Evey said.

“The cost of sports is out of sight,” Evey said.

“Seventy percent of ESPN’s total programming is in the form of movies and other entertainment. That will eventually make the broadcasting prices on the leagues go down. Really, ABC isn’t in sports anymore. They say they’re ABC, but really it’s ESPN personnel and that’s a natural transition.”

ESPN was an idea that many thought impossible, Evey said.

“Many ideas like ESPN are called ‘dumb’ because they are different,” Evey said. “It’s a success story that I made happen. I’ve always been the first one called by the authors of books on the history of ESPN, always promised that they would correct the history. That never happened.”

Some of the highlights of Evey’s book includes the rivalry and a near brawl in the parking lot of the Playboy Mansion with Ted Turner and how Evey forced the departure of founder Rasmussen only a month after ESPN was on the air.

Evey said he sold the manuscript idea to Triumph Books’ aquistions manager to correct the history of how ESPN started, in order to keep the information from being completely forgotten.

“I said, ‘If this story is not told by me, millions of sports junkies will never learn the correct history.’ They gave me a May due date in order to write a 70,000 word manuscript complete with captions and pictures,” Evey said. “That was in February.”

Evey said that the 224-page book published in September 2004, in time for ESPN’s 25th anniversary, was enthusiastically received.

“The writing of this book is the most difficult thing I have ever done,” Evey said. “Who would have ever thought a sludge skimmer could have launched this?”