New York ? Roone Arledge, a pioneering television executive at ABC News and Sports responsible for creating shows from “Monday Night Football” to “Nightline,” died Thursday. He was 71.

Arledge died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said. The cause of death was complications from cancer, ABC News reported.

“Roone changed the face of television sports coverage with ‘Wide World of Sports’ in the early 1960s and the production of the Olympic games,” said longtime broadcaster Jim McKay.

Although he retired in 1998, Arledge’s far-reaching influence can still be seen on TV: when a slow-motion replay is shown at a sporting event, when Peter Jennings reads the news or when a sportscaster criticizes a player.

Arledge was single-handedly credited with bringing modern production techniques to sports coverage, then building ABC News into a power during the 1980s. For a decade, he was president of the sports and news divisions at ABC.

He changed the viewing habits of American sports fans by bringing “Monday Night Football” to the air in 1970. It is still a staple of ABC’s prime-time schedule.

The 36-time Emmy winner was cited as one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.