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| Vol. 24, No. 9 | November 13, 1998 |
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| Vol. 24, No. 9 | November 13, 1998 |
By Lauren Marshall
Roone Arledge, chairman of ABC News, television innovator and a 1952 graduate of Columbia College, is this year's recipient of the Alexander Hamilton Medal, the College's Alumni Association announced. The medal is the highest honor given by the College to its graduates and faculty.
Arledge will be presented with the medal at a dinner on Nov. 18 in Low Rotunda hosted by President George Rupp, Columbia College Dean Austin E. Quigley, Hamilton Dinner co-chairs Mike Nichols and Diane Sawyer, Alumni Association President Phillip M. Satow, CC'63, and special guest Ted Koppel.
The Alexander Hamilton Medal, which is conferred annually, recognizes "distinguished service and accomplishment in any field of human endeavor." It is named for the alumnus who in 1774 entered King's College, as Columbia was then known, and whose statesmanship helped to shape post-colonial America.
Arledge, the 51st Hamilton medalist, is being honored for his role as chief architect of the revolution in network news and sports coverage. During his two decades as president of ABC News beginning in 1977, Arledge created what are considered among the most critically acclaimed news programs in television history.
And as chief of ABC Sports from 1968 to 1986, he changed the way sports are televised by introducing state-of-the-art production techniques such as stylized graphics, innovative camera angles, slow motion and instant replay. The popularity of "Monday Night Football" and "Wide World of Sports" are evidence of his success at creating a national audience for television-broadcast sports.
Arledge also dominated the international televised sports scene during the 10 years he produced ABC's broadcasts of the Olympic Games. Today, he is credited with establishing the standards by which televised sports are judged.
Arledge adds his Hamilton Medal to a number of prestigious honors: among them, the Medal of the Olympic Order and four George Foster Peabody Awards, the broadcast industry's highest distinction. His shows have garnered 36 Emmy Awards and twenty Peabody Awards. In 1995, the Gold Baton for overall excellence from the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards went to ABC News, the first network news group ever to receive such an honor.
In 1990 he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. Life magazine has named Arledge among its "100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century." Previous Hamilton Medal recipients include Nicholas Murray Butler, CC'1882, GSAS '83 and '84, a Columbia President and the first Hamilton honoree; U.S. and Columbia President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Hon.'47; Mark Van Doren, poet, writer and Columbia professor; the world-renowned musical duo Richard Rogers, CC'23, and Oscar Hammerstein II, CC'16; Arthur O. "Punch" Sulzberger, CC'51, publisher of The New York Times, and 15 Nobel Prize Winners.