Network Operations Luminaries?

Would "old timers" that ran older networks (such as ARPANET or BITNET)
count too ? from the answers it seems that no network operations existed
before "the Internet" - of course the networks were _much_ smaller but
IMHO 9.6Kbit/sec backbones must have had other challenges - right ?

There was an ARPANET network operations center @ BBN.

Craig

Did any of the BBN managers publish a book on how to run a network
operation center?

I'm familar with Katie Hafner's "Where Wizards Stay Up Late." But it
is more history than operations oriented.