Roone Arledge: 1931-2002; Innovator who altered TV's presentation of sports dies

Roone Arledge, who brought a dynamic and imaginative approach to televised sports - and then did the same for network news - died Thursday of complications from cancer. He was 71 and had been ailing in recent months. No individual did more than Arledge to turn televised sports into the money machine it is today. ABC grew rich off Arledge, but his golden touch went both ways. The organizers of the Olympics and professional leagues saw the value of their franchises soar when ABC held the rights. This led to bidding wars as other networks scurried to keep up with ABC. Arledge's remarkable career - he was president of ABC Sports from 1968 to 1986 and of ABC News from 1977 to 1997, holding both posts simultaneously for nearly a decade - was two parts mastery, one part mystery. He divined the potential of TV as nobody else in his generation had. Then he realized that potential by developing the best people and giving them the best equipment to work with. "What Roone really figured out, in news and sports, was how to take the raw material of an event and turn it into compelling programming," said Marc Gunther, author of The House That Roone Built. Arledge transformed the staid telecasts of the Olympic Games into eye-popping spectacles that minted national heroes overnight. Directing college football games in the 1960s, Arledge turned the cameras around and showed fans whooping, cheerleaders cheering, coaches yelling - anything to add excitement and color to the telecast. Arledge joined the ABC network in 1960, when it was still hiring outside contractors to produce its sports programming. He became president of ABC Sports in 1968 and built it into a powerhouse. He took Pete Rozelle's idea for a prime-time NFL showcase and turned it into a national phenomenon. "Monday Night Football" propelled the league to new heights and gave the network its first cash cow. In his heyday, a single decision by Arledge might ripple through the entire sporting world. He put Howard Cosell in the "Monday Night Football" booth in 1970 - then stood firm when even sponsors were calling for the outspoken announcer's toupee. Cosell not only proved crucial to "MNF's" success, he paved the way for later sportscasters who were valued for their attitude, smarts and fan's passion for the game. Another farsighted call in the summer of 1969 dramatically raised the profile of college football. On a hunch from an employee, Beano Cook, Arledge convinced the athletic departments at Texas and Arkansas to move their annual matchup from October to December. That game, "The Big Shootout" - played 33 years ago today - turned out to be for the national championship. President Nixon was in attendance, and millions more watched on ABC as the Longhorns won a thriller 15-14. Later, as president of ABC's news division, Arledge created "20/20," which for years was the only successful prime-time newsmagazine besides "60 Minutes." He lured David Brinkley over from NBC to invigorate a Sunday-morning talk show. And in 1980 he persuaded his bosses to stop trying to beat Johnny Carson with entertainment and put on a late-night news program instead. Arledge could be hands-on, calling the shots on each night of coverage during 10 Olympiads, or hands-off. He would vanish from his office for days, leaving subordinates to handle the egos of his high-priced talent or mediate a dispute between strong-minded producers who had gotten their competitive fire from Arledge. He loved technology and spent top dollar to give a presentation more immediacy and importance. Instant replay, on-the-field microphones and satellite hookups were all introduced by ABC under Arledge's watchful eye. Other innovations were creative rather than technical. His idea for "up close and personal" features helped turn obscure Olympians into household names. Like any bold innovator, Arledge had little fear of failure. He created the influential "Wide World of Sports" but also hatched the forgettable "Battle of the Network Stars" and the disastrous "Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell." After the dreadful opening broadcast of "20/20," Arledge fired the hosts, dumped the show's crazy-quilt format and relaunched it the following week with Hugh Downs. Before launching "Nightline" in 1980, Arledge experimented with several anchors for its predecessor, the 15-minute update "America Held Hostage." Ted Koppel emerged as the natural choice for the job, but Arledge - in a classic non-decision typical of his management style - would not commit to him. Koppel finally won over his boss, and by 1985 Arledge was bragging, "Tell me another news organization that has a Ted Koppel sitting by." Behind the scenes, Arledge had a demanding style that would leave its mark on many of the medium's future leaders. Among his proteges are the current president of ABC, Robert Iger; ABC Sports president Howard Katz; CBS Sports president (and son of Jim McKay) Sean McManus; and NBC's Olympics producer Dick Ebersol. At a dinner in September, where Arledge received a lifetime achievement award, Katz revealed the secret of his mentor's success. "Roone would create order out of chaos," he told Electronic Media magazine. "He would create chaos and then create order out of it." Arledge's passing came in what may be the twilight of the era of television he inaugurated. Major sports no longer make money for their rights-holders. Networks treat them as "loss leaders" or surrender the rights to cable, whose importance Arledge was slow to grasp. "In a certain sense his legacy lives on in 'Monday Night Football' and 'Nightline,' " Gunther said. "But it's impossible to imagine anyone coming along in the future like Roone Arledge." - To reach Aaron Barnhart, phone (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com The Arledge file Born: July 8, 1931 on Long Island. 1960: Became producer of ABC college football and became the first to use slow-motion, freeze-frame views, instant replays, hand-held cameras and the placement of microphones to bring the sound of sports into living rooms. 1961: Created "ABC Wide World of Sports" one of the most popular sports series ever and coined its tag line "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat." 1964: Supervised coverage for the Olympic Games for the first time. Eventually he would oversee 10 Olympic Games from 1964 to 1988; introducing personal profiles of the athletes. 1968: Became president of ABC Sports. 1970: Brought "Monday Night Football" onto the air, insisting that the networks and not the sports leagues approve the announcers. That allowed him to put Howard Cosell, an abrasive New Yorker, in the booth. 1972: Made the call to allow Jim McKay to continue as the lead announcer during the Olympic hostage crisis in Munich rather than turn the broadcast over to news-side reporters. 1977: Selected to resuscitate ABC's struggling news division while still running sports. Under his watch ABC created "20/20" and "Prime Time Live." 1977: When terrorists seized Americans hostages in Iran, Arledge grabbed the 11:30 p.m. Eastern time slot from ABC's affiliates and put Ted Koppel on the air to deliver nightly updates. He never gave it up, and the updates evolved into "Nightline." 1990: Listed as one of 100 most important Americans of the 20th centruy by "Life" magazine. 1994: Sports Illustrated selected the 40 individuals with the greatest impact on sports over the previous 40 years. Arledge ranked third behind Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan. 1998: Retired. @ART CAPTION:Roone Arledge (left) brought Howard Cosell into the broadcast booth of "Monday Night Football" in just one of his strokes of genius that had ABC on top of the broadcast world. @ART:Photo (color)@ART CREDIT:1974 photo