Recently, I was fortunate to receive a preview copy of Every Town is a Sports Town which is a good history book about ESPN. It is about former CEO George Bodenheimer, and how he chose his career path over a couple beers with his Dad, to become employee #130 as a mail clerk.
Back in the day...when I was in grade school I read all kinds of autobiographies, and I loved reading them, I especially enjoyed learning how they got where they are. For ESPN's Bodenheimer, it was being a driver for Dick Vitale that gave him the drive to continue plugging away at his first job out of college. How cool would it be to have Dickie V telling you your Awesome?!
There are some very good nuggets in the book...the first commercial jingle, how Boomer started with the nicknaming of sports figures, the legendary speech of Jimmy V (all royalties to the author goes to the Jimmy V Fund ), and the first meeting with Steve Jobs over the "new" ESPN phone....remember that one?!
The book is more ESPN history than a business book, but it is a very good read because who doesn't want to know how it all began at ESPN? Bodenheimer is the true insider.
Every sports station today can trace its roots to ESPN some way or another. It is truly the leader in sports.
Keep it in the short-grass,
JFB
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