I recently filled out one of those e-mail quizzes that asked, "If you could eat dinner with any three people in history, who would they be?"

At some point while reading "Roone - A Memoir," I said to myself, "I forgot about Roone Arledge; he should have been a strong candidate for that list."

Arledge, who died last December, came close to inventing the current standards for television sports, and changed the nature of the broadcast news business as well. That's why anyone with an interest in either of those subjects should find this book pretty close to a must-read.

You probably know Arledge's name, and you certainly know his work if you watched television since the late 1950s. After a couple of entry-level jobs, he wound up as a producer for ABC Sports. In the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants days of 40-plus years ago, ABC was a definite third in a three-horse race among the networks in almost anything. The network didn't have anything to lose, so it gave Arledge the responsibility of spicing up its coverage of NCAA football. He also ran a little show called "ABC's Wide World of Sports."

Arledge was determined to bring the game to the fans. So he put cameras and microphones everywhere. Arledge essentially brought slow-motion replay to sports. He created openings and features to give a sense of place to the viewer. Most of it worked, and Arledge's disciples are still everywhere in the sports broadcasting business today.

His touch is particularly evident in Olympic coverage. Before ABC got ahold of the Games, they were hardly "must-see TV" on the viewing calendar. Arledge jumped all over stories and made stars. He is the man most responsible for the Olympics growing in stature over the past several years. (Or put another way, Olga Korbut would be just another unknown gymnast without him.)

Arledge goes through those years at a breakneck speed in the book, and it's almost all delicious. It's pretty obvious that he positively loved being in the middle of the action at big events. There are all sorts of good stories about what his professional life was like then. Yes, they make for great dinner conversation.

As a reward for great work (and, not incidentally, millions in profits), Arledge was promoted to the head of ABC News and Sports about 25 years ago. ABC News was behind Atari in the ratings at that point, but Arledge developed a professional staff complete with star power at the top: Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel, David Brinkley, Diane Sawyer, etc.

As you'd expect there are plenty of stories about ABC personalities along the way and how he brought the "team" together in the first place. The network had its share of egos -- any organization with Howard Cosell qualifies. In going through his dealings with personalities inside and outside of ABC, Arledge is surprisingly frank. For example, Max Robinson is roasted for lying among other sins, and Roger Mudd is ripped as boring. Even Jennings and Sam Donaldson take some shots here. Arledge shares an opinion about Cosell that the rest of us probably have -- brilliant at what he did early in his career, but transformed into a bitter old man at the end who wasn't worth the trouble professionally.

For about three-quarters of the 400-plus pages, this is a five-star book. However, it slows down at the end. Arledge was dealing mostly with corporate executives in his final years at ABC, and it shows. What would you rather read about: budget cuts or the Olympic Games? Corporate jockeying or the start of "Nightline?" I think Arledge had a lot more enthusiasm for the latter as well.

This is not the place to go for information on Arledge's personal life. He obviously worked too hard (easy for me to say), which caused a strain on his personal life (three marriages). There are few details about his family here.

I'm also sure that Arledge's illness played a roll in a few factual errors that popped up. I might be the only person to know that the name of a champion barrel-jumper was wrong (I grew up on ABC's Wide World of Sports), but I won't be the only person to know that Marvin Hagler was the middleweight boxing champion, not light-heavyweight. I counted about six such errors without looking too hard for them. Arledge supposedly worked on the book right up until his death, but it still is a little rough on that edge.

Overall, this definitely is a worthwhile read. Roone Arledge is one of the most important figures in American sports and television in the 20th century, and his contributions will live on indefinitely. We miss him, but it's good that he got his contributions down on paper before he left us.

Recommended: Yes