[Top Author Series] The Story Behind ESPN’s Sports Heaven With Mike Soltys & Garrett Z. Sutton

Mike Soltys is the official historian and former Vice President of Communications at ESPN, the sports media giant that revolutionized 24-hour sports broadcasting. During his 43-year career, he led media relations and communications efforts as ESPN grew into a global sports powerhouse.

Garrett Z. Sutton is a corporate attorney, best-selling author, and Owner at Corporate Direct, where he helps entrepreneurs and investors structure and protect their businesses. He is the author of multiple books, including Start Your Own Corporation, Run Your Own Corporation, and several titles in Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Advisors series.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [2:23] Mike Soltys and Garrett Z. Sutton share favorite books and reading habits
• [9:48] How optimism and bold vision helped secure Budweiser as ESPN’s first sponsor
• [13:53] The massive risks ESPN’s founders took with family, money, and reputation
• [16:04] The razor-thin path that led to ESPN’s first real revenue
• [18:45] ESPN’s evolution from tape-delayed games to a sports media powerhouse
• [21:34] The satellite deal that helped launch ESPN into nationwide fame
• [26:37] Bill Rasmussen’s secrets for staying positive under pressure
• [32:51] How keeping promises built critical trust between ESPN and the NCAA

In this episode…

Everyone knows ESPN as a global sports broadcasting powerhouse today, but few recall its unlikely beginnings. The idea of a 24-hour sports network once sounded unrealistic — even reckless — to industry insiders. What drove its founders to risk everything on a vision most people believed would fail?

Mike Soltys and Garrett Z. Sutton reveal the unlikely story behind the rise of ESPN and the mindset that helped turn a risky idea into a sports media empire. Garrett shares how optimism, strategic partnerships, and relentless belief helped secure early backing from brands like Budweiser and partners such as RCA when resources were scarce. Mike reflects on ESPN’s early days at a muddy construction site in Bristol, Connecticut, where the now-iconic SportsCenter first came to life. Together, they highlight the risks ESPN’s founders took with their finances, careers, and reputations to bring the network to life. Their stories illustrate how perseverance, creative problem-solving, and strong relationships helped transform a scrappy startup into a global sports broadcasting powerhouse.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Mike Soltys and Garrett Z. Sutton to discuss the bold founding story behind ESPN. They explore the risks the founders took, the partnerships that helped secure early sponsors, and the satellite deal that propelled ESPN nationwide. Mike and Garrett also share lessons on resilience, teamwork, and staying optimistic through uncertainty.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Mike Soltys on LinkedIn
• Garrett Z. Sutton on LinkedIn
• ESPN
• Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN by Bill Rasmussen, Mike Soltys, Garrett Sutton, Chris Berman
• The Miracle Morning (Updated and Expanded Edition): The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) by Hal Elrod
• 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More by Perry Marshall, Richard Koch
• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
• The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan
• Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It―Unlock Your Persuasion Potential in Professional and Personal Life by Chris Voss, Tahl Raz
• Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Pat Conroy
• No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris
• The Secret of Secrets: A Novel (Robert Langdon) by Dan Brown
• Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN by James Andrew Miller, Tom Shales
• How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life by Pat Williams
• Coach Wooden: The 7 Principles That Shaped His Life and Will Change Yours by Pat Williams, Jim Denney, Tony Dungy
• The ABC’s Of Getting Out Of Debt by Garrett Sutton
• Buying and Selling a Business by Garrett Sutton
• Start Your Own Corporation: Why the Rich Own Their Own Companies and Everyone Else Works for Them by Garrett Sutton
• Run Your Own Corporation: How to Legally Operate and Properly Maintain Your Company into the Future by Garrett Sutton, Robert T. Kiyosaki
• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
• The Clown Prince of Baseball by Max Patkin, Stan Hochman
• Symphony of the Holocaust by Greg DeHart

Special mention(s):

• Bill Rasmussen on LinkedIn
• Robert Kiyosaki on LinkedIn
• James Pitaro on LinkedIn
• Hachette Audio
• Will Damron on LinkedIn
• Greg DeHart on LinkedIn
• Robert Lee on LinkedIn
• George Bodenheimer on LinkedIn
• Stuart Evey on LinkedIn
• Hal Steinberg on LinkedIn
• Al Parinello on LinkedIn

Related episodes:

• “[Private Equity & Author Series] The Owner’s Manual for Scaling and Selling With Seth Deutsch” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Author Series] How To Handle Conflict Like a Pro With Gabe Karp” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Sweet Process Series & Top Author Series] How to Make Your Business the Next McDonalds of Your Industry with Michael E. Gerber Author of The E-myth” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Orlando Magic Cofounder: Starting an NBA Franchise -with Pat Williams [Big Lessons in Leadership]” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Sweet and Snack Show Series] Creating a Positive Impact with Rob Nelson Founder of Big League Chew” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Beyond The Game with Spencer Paysinger” on Beyond the Game with Hal

Quotable moments:

• “Bill Rasmussen had intentional optimism — a visionary who rallied people through sheer belief.”
• “If Muhammad Ali could take time to shake the elevator operator’s hand, anyone can show that respect.”
• “No matter the circumstance, stay positive. Bill starts each day thinking, ‘I’m happy to be alive. Today will be a good day.’”
• “Never compromise your integrity — do the right thing, even when no one’s watching.”
• “If you have a great idea and people doubt it, keep pushing forward.”

Action steps:

1. Embrace intentional optimism and perseverance: Maintain a positive outlook even during setbacks or skepticism. 
2. Leverage teamwork and strong partnerships: Build collaboration and bring the right people together, as ESPN’s founders did with partners such as RCA and Budweiser. 
3. Stay adaptable and recognize opportunity pivots: Be willing to shift direction when new opportunities arise.
4. Operate with integrity and honor commitments: Keep your word and maintain strong ethics.
5. Focus on delivering value before chasing profits: Prioritize serving your audience and creating meaningful impact first.

Episode Transcript

Intro 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here. I am the Founder of InspiredInsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I’ve got Garrett Sutton and Mike Soltys, we’re going to get into the amazing book that they wrote with Bill Rasmussen, the ESPN Founder. It’s called Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN. There’s a foreword by Chris Berman. We’re going to get into some crazy stories. People think of ESPN as this juggernaut, but it is really a scrappy start. It was a scrappy startup, which is perfect for this audience. Before I formally introduce Mike and Garrett, I do want to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. And as I do this, I’m going to pull up on the screen.

You can get this probably anywhere. You can get a book, which you can listen to on Audible, Sports Heaven: The Birth of ESPN. I’ll be getting mine on Audible.

I do want to talk about past guests who were, because I do have a Top Author Series on the podcast. Okay, so I’m going to scroll through here, and I want Mike and Garrett, you, to tell me some of your favorite books and authors, also in a second. But Seth Deutsch talks about The Owner’s Manual, which is for private equity. Another one. This is a good one. Gabe Karp. It talks about how to handle conflict. And he’s part Operating Partner at Detroit, you know, Detroit Venture Partners, Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. That’s one of my favorites. One that is 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall. Essentialism by Greg McKeown. The One Thing by Jay Papasan. So there’s a bunch on here, some of my. I guess that I’m not pulling up. Michael Gerber of the E-Myth has been on the show. Chris Voss’s Never Split the Difference is also one of my favorite books. Mike, Garrett, what are some of yours? And we’re going to mention that Garrett has written many, many books. We’ll talk about this in a second, but what are some of your favorites?

Garrett Z. Sutton: 02:23

Well, Jeremy, one of mine certainly is Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 02:27

Robert Kiyosaki, of course.

Garrett Z. Sutton: 02:29

And I worked with Robert Kiyosaki. That’s why I’ve written so many books. It’s just a terrific book. I’ve had my kids all read it. So that’s one. The other book I’m reading right now, it doesn’t fit into the entrepreneurial space, but it’s Gone with the Wind, and I always wanted to read it. It’s 950 pages and it’s, and it’s just a terrific book. And, you know, for years it was the best-selling book after the Bible in the United States.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 02:55

I didn’t know that. Wow.

Garrett Z. Sutton: 02:57

And it just, it it covers a lot more than the movie does. So if you’re looking for a great long read, I would recommend that one.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 03:05

Oh, yeah. I mean, Rich Dad Poor Dad is a classic I consider in the same camp as E-myth. Mike, what about you? What are some of your favorites?

Mike Soltys: 03:13

I guess I’m going to have to read Gone with the Wind. I hadn’t, I hadn’t prior to this project, listened to audiobooks, but got into this project and got an audible subscription. And, and it becomes a negotiation with my wife because the listening is done in the car as we’re driving around. And the first three that we listened to were the No More Tears book about Johnson and Johnson. Gardiner Harris, I think, was the author’s name. Very good non-fiction book. Then I’ve read a bunch of Dan Brown. So we listened to the to the latest Secrets on Secrets or whatever the name of that was. And then, I mean, as an ESPN Historian James Andrew Miller’s Those Guys Have All the Fun was the most thorough and best ESPN history book came out now about 15 years ago, but it’s been the definitive history of the early years of ESPN.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:10

You know, there is another one I, I want to point out, I had Pat Williams on the podcast and he’s got I don’t know, Mike, if you listen to or read his books, he’s got one I think on the 76 ers. I’m gonna have to pull up. But he’s got a bunch of books that he wrote and he helped really launch the Orlando Magic. And he talks about going door to door trying to pre-sell tickets to Orlando Magic to, you know, again, people don’t think of Orlando Magic as a startup, but he was going door to door trying to pre-sell season tickets.

Mike Soltys: 04:47

Yeah, I one day I would in my job at ESPN, I’d get all sorts of Random connections, and one day Pat ends up calling me and I’m trying to remember what it was. But I think it was tied to selling one of the books that he had, he had done, and we had a delightful conversation.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:04

Yeah. So here is actually he, he wrote a bunch of books. You can see How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life. That Coach Wooden: The 7 Principles, that’s one person I wish I would have met. Maybe we’ll talk about. Mike. You’ve met some interesting people. Did you ever meet Coach Wooden in your days or.

Mike Soltys: 05:22

I unfortunately did not. Okay. And have met a number of college basketball coaches over the years. But. But Coach Wooden was a little before my time.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:32

Who are some of your favorites? I know you have a fan. Muhammad Ali story.

Mike Soltys: 05:37

Yes. Muhammad Ali came to we did an ESPN event at the Capitol in Washington and tied to the end of the century. And Muhammad Ali came in and was absolutely delightful And he made the point. What really struck me in the story that I’ve told is he arrives at the Capitol, the halls of power, and he’s the most famous person on earth. This is, you know, 1999. And he made the point. We’re going through the metal detector and he goes behind the table and shakes the guy’s hand who’s operating it. And then the the Senate famously had elevator operators, and we weren’t going in the elevator, but he wanted to go shake the hands of the elevator operator and then the caterers and, and, and that just spoke volumes to me that if Muhammad Ali can do that, really, probably most anybody else could do it.

You know, and on on basketball coaches, since I’m a, a big a UConn fan and a UConn grad, Geno Auriemma is the I argue Geno. Geno Auriemma is the best coach of any sport of anything. The success over the length of time is just phenomenal. And in this book, it actually mentions the first women’s event ever on ESPN was a UConn Harvard women’s game. This was before Geno, before they were any good. And then have had the good fortune to to spend some time with both Jim Calhoun and Dan Hurley. And both have been hugely successful. Geno.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:01

Is Geno still around or.

Mike Soltys: 07:03

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:04

Is he does he have a book?

Mike Soltys: 07:06

He he’s a number.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:07

If not, I think Garrett and Mike, you should team up and come up with his book.

Mike Soltys: 07:11

Should we should.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:12

Does he have a book?

Mike Soltys: 07:13

He has done a couple, you know, as told to books. So.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:16

Yes. Okay. I’ll have to check it out. That’s great. Well, before I’m going to formally introduce all of you in a second. But I do want to say this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that in a few ways. One, we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast, and we do the strategy, accountability and the full execution and production behind the scenes. And number two, an easy button for companies gifting. So, you know, making, gifting and staying top of mind for clients. It can be partners, it could be prospects, it could be staff from a culture perspective, easy and affordable. So you just give us the addresses. We will do everything else. So it’s not like Mike and Garrett where we just send one GIF. It’s like, think 3 to 4 gifts a year for five years. And we don’t like to send tchotchkes, like, like mugs or pens that people throw away. But I like to get food. So we send sweet treats in the mail. So if you have questions, go to Rise25.com or email [email protected] to learn more.

For me, relationships are the number one thing in my life, so I’m always looking at ways to profile the people I admire on the podcast and send them cool stuff in the mail. I’m excited to introduce formally, you know, really we talked about, I don’t know if I never knew the full story behind ESPN and ESPN Founder Bill Rasmussen turned being fired into a $50 billion empire. And it’s really by believing in an idea that everyone said was impossible, right? Which is a 24 hour sports cable network, right? So the team that basically is telling this story, Mike Soltys is the official historian for ESPN. Prior to that role, he spent 43 years in public relations at ESPN.

He’s won countless awards for media relations. And Garrett Sutton, as I mentioned, is a best selling author. And he’s got I’m not I can’t even. We would spend the whole time listing all the books. Garrett. But I’ll mention a few. You know, Start Your Own Corporation, Run Your Own Corporation, The ABC’s Of Getting Out Of Debt, Buying and Selling a Business. He has books with Robert Kiyosaki’s, Rich Dad Poor Dad, advisor series, and many more. So thank you for both, you know, for joining me. And I want to launch right into it and talk about some of your lessons you learned from the book and some of your favorite stories. And Garrett, I would love for you to start and just talk about me, Budweiser for a second.

Garrett Z. Sutton: 09:48

Well, thanks for having us, Jeremy. It’s great to be here. And, you know, the Budweiser story for me is, is one of the the fun stories in the book sports Heaven. Bill Rasmussen is positive. You know, he, as Mike always says, he had intentional optimism. He was just this optimistic visionary who brought people along with his idea. And at the start, he is working with the NCAA, with RCA to get the satellite and then with Budweiser to be a lead sponsor. And, you know, he doesn’t have a lot of money.

He’s pulling all these people together with by by just sheer force of will and vision. And he gets Budweiser to be one of the lead sponsors. And so Budweiser is at the launch of ESPN on September 7th, 1979. Their. Their ad team is in the control booth, and the first live show that ESPN does involves the world’s slow pitch softball championship with the Milwaukee Schlitz team. And so here are the Budweiser executives watching the channel that they have supported promoting the Milwaukee Schlitz team. And the Budweiser guys took it all in stride. They had a great sense of humor about it, but that’s one of the fun stories that’s in the book.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 11:18

I mean, the slow pitch, people drink a lot of beer, so it’s actually a pretty good marketing thing. I know that when they’re slow, they’re not even playing softball. They’re mostly just drinking. So that’s perfect. You know, Mike, talk about the launch party and like paint a picture. Like what is ESPN like? People envision what ESPN is now, right? But what did it look like then? It’s like, this is a startup.

Mike Soltys: 11:42

Yeah, it’s very much a startup in Bristol, Connecticut, a muddy lot that the building was under construction but not done. They had to bring in a production truck to be the control room to do it. And, and, you know, had flies and everything, but they, they needed to get on the air. They committed to being on September 7th, 1979, which was an important thing for the cable systems there. There was a lot of networks that had promised things that didn’t come through. The credibility of fulfilling your promise was very important.

And they’re hiring people. They’re building. They’re doing this all to get on the air and they successfully get on the air. Not only does ESPN launch the first show is Sportscenter, which you would have never imagined that night would become the force that Sportscenter became, but Bill had done a half hour sports only show in Hartford, Connecticut, had rented time on a religious channel that was willing to. To do a time by with him and had launched a Connecticut half hour a day thing three years earlier. And that was what the idea for Sportscenter was. And, you know, here we are 48 years later, and Sportscenter is still a staple of of sports fans.

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