Longtime TV sportscaster Ed Arnold died Thursday.

Arnold, a resident of Fountain Valley since 1973, was 85.

He died of heart failure according to Dixie Arnold, his wife of 63 years.

Ed Arnold was a sports anchor at KTLA/5 and KABC/7. He also worked as a host of  “Real Orange,” a news features program that focused on Orange County, at KOCE TV.

Arnold had endured many heart ailments over the past 22 years. Dixie Arnold said doctors advised him to have a heart transplant. But he declined.

“We prayed about it,” she said. “And we knew that with all of the doctors’ care that he stayed alive because of them. He lived an extremely long time to have come from that point.

“He had all kinds of things done to his heart. He had a valve replaced. That is the reason why … it just gave out.”

Arnold worked as a sports reporter for Los Angeles and Orange County radio stations before he was hired at KTLA as a sports anchor in the late 1960s. Arnold was hired for the same position at KABC in 1975 and continued there until 1986 when he returned to KTLA where he remained until 1999.

Arnold continued working at various Southern California radio stations, including KMPC/710  during his TV years.

He was very much a straight news broadcaster, sticking with facts and news while never relying on shtick.

Arnold also was an announcer for the “Hour of Power” a nationally-televised Christian show that featured Robert Schuller and was broadcast from the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove (Crystal Cathedral now is Christ Cathedral and belongs to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange).

Dixie Arnold said one of her husband’s favorite endeavors was the Special Olympics. He helped Olympian Rafer Johnson and the Kennedys get the organization started and continued to work with the Special Olympics.

He served in the United States Marine Corps and played on a Marines football team. Santa Ana College coach Homer Beaty spoke at the team’s banquet, and that began a long relationship between Arnold and the community college.

Arnold played on the Santa Ana College 1961 Eastern Conference championship football team. He went on to attend Long Beach State where Arnold earned his degree in speech with an emphasis on TV, radio and film.

He is in the Santa Ana College Athletics Hall of Fame and the Santa Ana College Alumni Hall of Fame. Arnold was the president and chairman of the Santa Ana College Foundation. An SAC fundraising golf tournament is called the Ed Arnold Golf Classic.

Arnold also was inducted into the Vanguard University Hall of Fame for Meritorious Service.

Arnold was the master of ceremonies for many Special Olympics, Boys & Girls Club events and other fundraising banquets and affairs in Orange County and elsewhere.

“He always wanted to be out there and help people, to do for others,” Dixie Arnold said. “Eddy loved people. He wanted to help them and do whatever he could for them.”

Ed Arnold is survived by Dixie, their son Dean and daughter-in-law Rachel and grandchildren Jacob and Luke.