The Early Days of ESPN: 300 Daydreams and Nightmares

The tales of early ESPN people who gambled their careers while critics carped that ＂all-sports television will never work＂ are full of guile, luck, fear, fun, and unbridled optimism. As ESPN’s founding executive producer, Peter Fox was privy to some spectacular professional efforts by a cadre of Connecticut locals who made the dream real. The first 300 days of the fledgling network were filled with mayhem, on-air gaffes, and the slowest instant replay in television. What started as a humble idea in the late spring of 1978 to capitalize on the brand-new mania for UConn men’s basketball soon morphed into ESPN and a plan to begin airing a series of ＂test broadcasts＂ in the fall. This is the story of the early days at ESPN, told by one on the network’s launching pad, and how a conversation over a couple of martinis in 1978 led to the creation of a broadcast juggernaut.

After selling his advertising agency in the 1970s, Peter Fox became an independent television producer, winning Clio, Addy, and Golden Pen awards. He was the founding executive producer of ESPN, and later became producer, director, and writer of corporate communications materials for Lloyds of London Syndicate, DuPont, United Technologies, and PPG Industries among others. He is currently Editor in Chief of SportsEdTV, the leader in online sports instruction, and managing director of SportsEdTV’s Learn to Win peak performance training, powered by HeartMath research and technology. He lives in North Carolina.