In George Bodenheimer’s 33 years with ESPN, he helped the network grow from its roots in his first job in the Bristol mailroom to watching it become the worldwide leader in sports as president and executive chairman of the company.
Now retired and the author of a memoir titled “Every Town Is a Sports Town,” Bodenheimer says his hometown of Greenwich is no exception to the title’s claim.
“We moved to Greenwich when I was in kindergarten” in 1963, said Bodenheimer, a graduate of Riverside Elementary, Eastern Middle and Greenwich High schools. “I had such a wonderful experience growing up in Greenwich. I would spend a lot of time on Greenwich Avenue.”
Bodenheimer, now a resident of New Canaan, lived in Old Greenwich and Riverside while growing up here; but his personal history also extends to the heart of downtown, specifically the lower portion of “The Ave.”
Before restaurant and bar TV sets were permanently tuned in to ESPN, Bodenheimer bartended at Mickey’s (now Sundown Saloon) for several years before landing a job in the mailroom of ESPN’s Bristol headquarters in 1981.
“If we had had ESPN when I was bartending at Mickey’s, it sure would have been on then,” Bodenheimer joked.
Bodenheimer’s next downtown Greenwich visit will be Thursday, May 26, at 7 p.m., when he’s scheduled to speak at Greenwich Library about his memoir with interviewer and longtime ESPN sportscaster Bob Ley. Seating in the Cole Auditorium is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Thirty-six years after ESPN debuted with a slow-pitch softball game on Sept. 7, 1979, Bodenheimer says that while he was always passionate about sports and the network, he never could have imagined it turning into what it is today—the most profitable media company in the world.
At ESPN, Bodenheimer proved himself uncannily adept at expanding programming and bringing in new revenue. In 1998 he engineered the purchase of ESPN’s first full season of NFL broadcasts, a major step up for the network—and one that Michael Eisner, head of parent company Disney, would call “the most important thing done in broadcasting since [CBS’s] Bill Paley stole all of NBC’s stars.”
Bodenheimer says an inspiration for his memoir came from his early days at the network, when he would visit towns and cities across the country trying to sell ESPN to cable operators. A 24-hour news cycle exclusively for sports was unheard of when ESPN came along, but the passion for sports at both a national and local level prevailed.
“I would get the same answer from every cable operator I asked to put on our signal,” Bodenheimer said. “They would say, ‘Well, you know George, 24-hour sports seems like a crazy idea, but we’ll put it on down here because it’s a sports town.’”
Fast forward to the present day, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a sports fan without his or her ESPN smartphone app at the ready.
“I don’t think there has ever been a better time to be a sports fan,” Bodenheimer said. “Greenwich in particular, being so close to New York and having a great collegiate team in UConn in the state, it’s a very strong sports area around here.”
As the commencement speaker for Greenwich High’s Graduation in 2002, he said it was an honor to return back to Greenwich to connect with old classmates and talk to the graduates. (This year, ESPN’s own Hannah Storm will deliver the commencement speech.)
His highlights and fondest memories of leading ESPN, he says, often come after a collective tragedy.
“Sports definitely unifies people,” Bodenheimer observed. “It also helps with healing. Look at the role that sports played in bringing this country back and bringing us together after tragedies like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Boston Marathon.”
“I really enjoyed some of the work we did when we gave back to people less fortunate. We helped rebuild a boys and girls club in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit. Working with people that helped rebuild a tiny part of the city was very meaningful to me and the other ESPN’ers who were there. Those are the moments that stick out to me during my time at ESPN.”
Bodenheimer’s most recent return to Greenwich Avenue wasn’t to pitch the worldwide sports network or even to visit his old stomping grounds at Sundown Saloon, but rather to watch his son, George, prepare to open a Tesla Auto showcase on the Avenue just a block away from the bar.
“It’s exciting for both of us,” Bodenheimer said. “Seeing Greenwich Avenue again brought back a lot of good memories.
“I would consider Greenwich an A-plus sports town, especially when you look at the facilities, the passion and the amount of people involved in athletics,” he continued. “We’re so fortunate to live on Long Island Sound, too. Greenwich is certainly phenomenal in so many ways, but certainly it is from a sports perspective.”
