NEW YORK -- ABC News chairman Roone Arledge was remembered Monday by colleagues as an inspirational boss and a pioneer who transformed sports television.

	Retired CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite arrives at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City for the funeral of Roone Arledge.

"I'm not sure I really trust myself to try to tell you everything Roone meant to me," ABC "Good Morning America" host Diane Sawyer told mourners at majestic St. Bartholomew's Church.

"But the biggest surprise to me last Friday morning was the silence in the universe and the place where I used to hear Roone thinking," she said. "I never noticed that he was the global positioning system."

Arledge, who died Thursday of complications from cancer at 71, created such shows as "Monday Night Football," "Wide World of Sports" and "Nightline." The 36-time Emmy winner, who was president of ABC News and Sports for more than a decade, was cited as one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.

Other ABC figures, including Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel and Barbara Walters, also spoke warmly of their former boss.

"Some reunion," said Jennings, gazing out at the vast church where every pew was occupied. "The man was no saint, but look around you. Had Roone not been as interesting, compelling and complicated, surely not that many of us would be here."

Arledge "made life and work so exciting," Jennings said. "He made everything seem so possible."

Jennings recalled that during the 1972 Munich Olympics, Arledge asked him his shoe size. When Jennings wanted to know why, Arledge said he was ordering Gucci shoes for the staff. He sent an employee to pick up the shoes -- not to a local store in Munich, but to Italy.

"He never did anything halfway," Jennings said.

Jennings also told of visiting Arledge recently in the hospital, and in the middle of their conversation, his old boss said, "Good putt."

It was then Jennings realized that Arledge had the TV on and was commenting on the golf match playing on it.

Arledge was an industry pioneer who ushered in the era of prime-time sports, mentored top broadcasters and developed new ways to present the news.

After bringing modern production techniques like slow-motion instant replay to sports coverage, Arledge built ABC News into a power during the 1980s.

Several of the speakers referred to Arledge's notorious habit of not returning phone calls. Walters spoke of a phone in the newsroom used only for his daily critiques of the broadcast, with his highest praise being, "Good job."

She also remembered meeting Arledge 40 years ago, an eccentric red-haired man driving around in a convertible, even in winter. When she went to work at ABC from NBC years later, Walters said she hit a rocky patch in her career -- but Arledge did not dump her.

"Roone Arledge saved my career," she said. "Simply put, Roone Arledge was my life preserver."