Roone Pickney Arledge, Jr. (July 8, 1931 – December 5, 2002) was an American sports and news broadcasting pioneer who was president of ABC Sports from 1968 until 1986 and ABC News from 1977 until 1998, and a key part of the company's rise to competition with the two other main television networks, NBC and CBS, in the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s.