Team USA
Roone Arledge
Athlete Bio
Hall Of Fame Bio
Roone Arledge was an American sports and news broadcasting executive at ABC who created Emmy Award-winning productions, including “Monday Night Football,” “ABC World News Tonight” and “Wide World of Sports.” Throughout his historic career, Arledge won 36 Emmy Awards and brought many innovations to the world of sports broadcasting, including slow-motion replays, freeze-frames, instant replays and enhanced audio gathering techniques. In 1961, he created ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” one of the most popular sports programs in history, and coined its unforgettable catch phrase, “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” He also personally produced all 10 of ABC’s Olympic Games broadcasts. Arledge served as president of ABC Sports from 1968-86 and of ABC News from 1977-98. He died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 71.