Enfield Hall of Famer, ESPN Founder Shares Special Sports Moments

CHESHIRE, CT — They shared their memories about winning a Super Bowl and a national championship, about "The Shot" and the launch of the "Worldwide Leader In Sports." They remembered their sports heroes, their most memorable career moments, and what it means to be feted with one of Connecticut's highest sports honors.

Four members of the Gold Key class of 2019, selected by the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance, gathered with members of the media Wednesday at the CIAC headquarters in Cheshire. Longtime football coach Chris Palmer, former UConn basketball star Chris Smith and St. Thomas More basketball coach Jere Quinn were present, with ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen joining the discussion via telephone from his home near Seattle, Wash.

John Bagley, a former Boston College and NBA star from Bridgeport, was scheduled to participate, but was unable to attend due to a last-minute work commitment.

Quinn, who has collected more than 1,000 victories at St. Thomas More since 1978, said he is thrilled to be included as a Gold Key honoree with his college coach from Central Connecticut State, Bill Detrick.

"Bill Detrick actually recommended I apply for the job at St. Thomas More," Quinn recalled. "I took the job temporarily, and have been there ever since."

Quinn's teams have won five New England Prep School Athletic Conference championships and the 2011 National Prep School Championship. He was nominated for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

Smith recalled the famous ending to the 1990 NCAA East Region semifinal matchup between UConn and Clemson at the Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey. Trailing 70-69 with exactly one second remaining, Scott Burrell hurled an 88-foot length-of-the-court pass that was caught by Tate George, who turned and tossed in a nearly-blind 16-foot jump shot that propelled the Huskies into the Elite Eight for the first time since 1964.

"That play was actually supposed to go to me, but Scott and Tate had other ideas," said Smith, who was the Big East Tournament Most Valuable Player that year as a sophomore and remains UConn's all-time scoring leader with 2,145 points.

Smith said his most memorable moment came in 1992, when he was drafted in the second round by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"All of my friends and family were with me, and I got the call from [general manager Jack McCloskey] telling me, 'welcome to the family.' This was before they announced my name at the draft," Smith recalled.

Palmer was the quarterbacks coach for the New York Giants in 2007, when they defeated the New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII. That game, notable for David Tyree's famous "Helmet Catch" from Palmer's protegee, MVP Eli Manning, which kept the game-winning drive alive, was the pinnacle of his 25-year career as an NFL coach, which included a two-season stint as head coach of the Cleveland Browns.

"Winning the Super Bowl was definitely the high point of my career," said Palmer, who is currently athletic director at the University of New Haven.

Rasmussen, 86, was the communications director and radio broadcaster for the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association in 1978, when he and the rest of the front office staff were let go by owner Howard Baldwin. Just 46 years old at the time, Rasmussen and his son Scott, who had also been dropped by the Whalers, contemplated their future while stuck in a traffic jam on Interstate 84. After kicking around several ideas, they decided on incorporating a concept of 24-hour sports in the fledgling cable television industry. ESPN was born, and launched on Sept. 7, 1979.

The launch night presented a terrible dilemma for the upstart network during its first-ever live event, a slow-pitch softball World Series game in Milwaukee.

"Anheuser-Busch had just signed the largest advertising contract in cable TV history to that point, for $1.38 million," Rasmussen, a 1999 inductee into the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame, said Wednesday. "I'm standing there with the Anheuser-Busch executive on launch night, and the studio anchor throws it to our first live event, where the broadcaster excitedly tells the viewers, 'welcome to tonight's game between the Kentucky Bourbons and the Milwaukee Schlitz, brought to you by Budweiser.' The Bud guy looks at me and says, 'what happened to our exclusivity?'"

In 1994, Rasmussen was referred to as "The Father of Cable Sports" by Sports Illustrated, and was ranked No. 29 on their list of the 40 most influential persons in sports over the first 40 years of the magazine. Rasmussen was ranked higher than superstars Pele, Bobby Orr, Sugar Ray Leonard,
Nolan Ryan, Peggy Fleming and Julius Erving.

Despite the amazing accomplishment of founding one of the world's most-watched cable television networks, Rasmussen said his biggest thrill came in 1977, when he still working for the Whalers and playing in one of the team's numerous charity softball games in West Hartford.

"You never knew who was going to be playing on the other team, but you could be sure there would always be a ringer or two," Rasmussen chuckled. "This one day, I'm at third base fielding grounders during warm-ups, and out of the corner of my eye, I see someone walk onto the field from near the third base coach's box, which was unusual. I finally turn around and the guy says to me, 'Hi, I just wanted to say hello, I'm Joe DiMaggio.' The next thing I know, I heard a familiar
voice over the P.A. system, and the announcer, after introducing the players, introduced himself. It was Mel Allen. He then went on to introduce the final player, in full New York Mets regalia: Willie Mays."

Quinn, Smith, Palmer, Rasmussen and Bagley will receive their awards at the 78th Gold Key Dinner, slated for Sunday, April 28 at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington. Tickets are $75, and may be obtained by contacting CSWA president Tim Jensen at tim.jensen@patch.com.

Image courtesy of CSWA