The sports network ESPN owes its existence to Tulsa’s own George Conner. After graduating from the University of Tulsa with a marketing degree in 1964, George went to work for Skelly Oil in downtown Tulsa.When Getty Oil gained control of Skelly in 1974, George became a finance manager and was asked to study a proposed Connecticut-based Cable Television network committed to all-day, every-day sports programming. George approved the project and Getty Oil made an initial investment of $10 million which grew to $160 Million. ESPN went live on September 7, 1979. Co-founder Bill Rasmussen stated: “I still firmly believe that, without Conner as the bridge to Getty money, there would have been no ESPN.”Listen to George talk about the beginning of this new concept of a 24-hour sports network and his role in establishing ESPN on the podcast and oral history website VoicesOfOklahoma.

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