Founding Chairman of ESPN Stuart Evey to Share Inside Story of Its Beginning
Founding chairman of ESPN and author Stuart Evey will give a lecture on the story of ESPN’s beginnings on Thursday, March 18, at 5 p.m. in Stackhouse Theater, Elrod Commons at Washington and Lee University.
Evey’s talk is free and open to the public. The lecture is part of W&L’s Johnson Lecture Series.
In 1979, Evey had worked his way to the vice presidency of worldwide non-oil operations of Getty Oil Company when he heard an entrepreneur pitch a new cable network-a total sports network.
Intrigued with the plan, Evey recommended this investment to Getty management. Following Getty’s investment in the launch of ESPN, Evey became the founding chairman. Not only did he direct and oversee the growth of ESPN, he also negotiated the sale to ABC television in 1984 for nearly $300 million.
Evey is the author of “Creating an Empire” about the early days of ESPN. Evey has served on the boards of many companies including Cyan, Mitsubishi Oil Company, GO Energy, Louisiana Gaming Company and Vadium Technology.
Now retired from Getty Oil, Evey serves as a business development consultant and is a frequent guest speaker for a variety of charitable events and organizations.
