George Bodenheimer - Every Town Is a Sports Town: Business Leadership at ESPN, from the Mailroom to the Boardroom

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Dont Give Up Dont Ever Give Up.

I started at ESPN in 1979. Eighteen months later, they hired this guy named George Bodenheimer out of Denison University. One of his responsibilities was to pick me up at the airport and drive me places.

Back then, George was an aspiring marketing guy. But he was young, impatient, and at the bottom of the totem pole. One day he said, Dick! Am I really going to have a career here? All I do is drive you around!

When George was in his early twenties, I could tell he had what it took to be successful. The way he looked you in the eye. The way he shook your hand. The way he made you feel. He had all the qualities you would want in a leaderand he was likable.

So I said to him: George, relax, baby! Something about you has winner written all over it. Youre Awesomewith a capital A. Youre a three-S man: Super, Scintillating, Sensational! You are a prime-time performerflat out! And by the way, this whole ESPN thing is going to succeed. Youre going to have a great career. Theres no doubt in my mind!

George stayed with ESPN. He used to be my driver and then he became my boss. But he always treated me the samegreat! And he never forgot where he came from. We formed a friendship that has lasted over thirty years.

Dick Vitale

I was Dickie Vs regular driver when I started at ESPN in January 1981. He was coming into Bristol regularly and I would pick him up at the Hartford airport. Often, wed drive to a diner and get something to eat. Then Id take him to the only hotel anywhere near ESPNs offices, the Holiday Inn in Plainville, Connecticut (where all the original ESPN Christmas parties took place).

At that time, Dick was one of the companys top on-air talents, growing in stature, and well respected. But only a couple of years earlier, in 1979, hed been unceremoniously fired as head coach of the Detroit Pistons (Dick called it getting the ziggy). Recognizing both his personality and his upside potential, ESPN quickly gave him a shot as a broadcasterand Dick Vitale did the very first national basketball game that ever aired on ESPN (a DePaul victory over Wisconsin).

During those forty-five-minute drives to and from the airport, Dick and I would talk about all kinds of things. He took an immediate interest in me and my career, which I deeply appreciated. We became good friends.

I was just a kid and in my very first job out of college. I was green, unsure of my career path, and a driver. But Dickie V treated me like royalty. Im proud to say that our friendship has lasted more than thirty years.

George Bodenheimer

M y job interview with ESPN was fast, really fast. The place was buzzing and everybody seemed like they had too much to do. When ushered into the HR directors office, I found him sitting at his desk looking over my rsum. He didnt get up, didnt look up, and I wasnt offered a seat. So I just stood there for a momenta nervous kid dressed in a coat and tie.

Okay, he finally said, based on this rsum youd be qualified to be a driver, which is what we call our mailroom guys. They deliver mail around to the buildings and drive people to and from the airport. We might have an opening in about a week. The job pays $8,000 a year. You wouldnt mind shoveling snow, would you?

No, sir. I wouldnt mind, I said.

All right, thanks for coming in. Well let you know.

And that was it. The interview lasted two minutes, and it was only five minutes from the time I walked through ESPNs front door before I was back out in the parking lot.

As I started the sixty-mile drive from Bristol back home to Greenwich, Connecticut, I kept reliving the interview in my mind. Eight thousand dollars was less than one-quarter of the starting salary offered by big companies (such as U.S. Steel, International Paper, Xerox, and Procter & Gamble), which were recruiting at Denison. I didnt know what I was going to do. It had now been nine months since graduation, I was bartending part-time, and I was still living at home. My parents, Julian and Vivian Bodenheimer, knew I was anxious to begin a career, but they didnt put too much pressure on me. Rather, they were supportive, just like a family should be.

ESPN Broadcast Center, 1979. ESPN Images

Dad was a retail store manager, Mom a banker. They raised my sister, Sue, and me to always treat others with respect. The worst thing my father could ever say to me when I was a kid was that I had disappointed him. And in those rare instances, it almost always had something to do with how I had interacted with people. Always treat others the way you would want to be treated. That was the rule in our household. It was the Golden Rule and it was lived every day.