Legendary Cowboys, SMU quarterback Don Meredith dies

The Dallas Morning News ^ | December 6, 2010 | Bras Townsend

[John W]

Don Meredith, the Dallas Cowboys and SMU quarterback and Monday Night Football icon, died Sunday evening in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 72.

Meredith died at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, a hospital spokesman confirmed this morning. The Meredith family's attorney, Lisa Fine Moses, said his wife, Susan, and daughter Mary were at his side.

Meredith had battled emphysema in recent years and suffered a minor stroke in 2004.

[Free Vulcan]

I remember that. What a classic!

[wardaddy]

How old are u fellas?

I’m 53....and will be thrilled to hit 72 if I’m that lucky..good genetics on height and modest decent looks and brain...bad genetics on heart

when I grew up only a few women lived past mid 70s and precious few men...most folks died in their 60s then

today Don only missed the male curve by a few years...when he was born it was 62 for white men born that year...and he picked up some credits from medical progress since then but he barely missed the mean

[RightField]

I can just hear Don signing “Turn Out the Lights the Party is Over”.

One Monday night the Browns were being beaten badly, and he sang "the party's over" in the middle of the 3rd quarter. He said something to the effect that the Browns were being so embarrassed he didn't have to wait until the 4th to sing. I don't know if he ever sang it in the 3rd quarter again.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Don Meredith started up/funded the company that made the first successful bank ATM’s.

[wardaddy]

You know...he really brings back the golden era when guys played hurt and gave it their all and no thuggery and murder and all that ghetto crap

scandals then were nothing....Lance Rentzel with teen girls, Lance Alworth smoked pot, Hollywood Henderson..drugs, Horning...skirt chaser ....and so forth...Namath...same stuff...Stabler’s Dixie mafia antics were about as rough as it got

just the occasional sex scandal and pot smoking and pain killers or steroid shots in bad knees

and it was a wide open contact sport not where they try to protect their little babies

Meredith smoked on the sidelines...imagine that...hilarious

it’s like the music of that era...I’m glad i got to be there

today just ain’t the same

[OrangeHoof]

There's only one proper way to salute this:

Turn out the lights. The party's over.
They say that all good things must end...

Meredith was such a funny person - at once seeking attention while at the same time shunning it. I'm sorry he didn't live longer.

Anyone who watches the movie "North Dallas Forty" knows the Seth Maxwell character was patterned after Don.

Finally, a salute to one of Don's most famous quotes - the one about head coach Tom Landry whose rigidness often conflicted with Don's free-spritedness: "If he was married to Racquel Welsh, he would expect her to cook."

[deport]

Joseph Don "Dandy Don" Meredith
born April 10, 1938
Mount Vernon, Texas

A few Don Meredith quotes/sayings:

"If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?"

“He’s a perfectionist. If he was married to Raquel Welch, he’d expect her to cook.”
~ Don Meredith on Coach Landry

“Welcome to the Mile High City, ... and I really am.”

“If it was third down, and you needed four yards, if you’d get the ball to
Walt Garrison, he’d get ya five. And if was third down and ya needed 20 yards,
if you’d get the ball to Walt Garrison, by God, he’d get you five.”
~ Don Meredith on Walt Garrison

“Turn out the lights: the party’s over.”

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Oh, that made my husband and I laugh! Thanks!

[Interesting Times]

I met Don Meridith in 1985 at the Kahala Hilton in Hawaii. He was there with Frank Gifford and O.J. Simpson to announce the Pro Bowl, and I was working at the Army base for a couple of weeks with a software team from EDS.

Our group was playing a game of touch football on the beach, when we heard a familiar voice doing play-by-play commentary on our game - and sure enough, it was Meridith. We hung out with the former stars off and on during the week, at one point showing them how to throw a Frisbee - which somehow none of the three had done before. You could see what a great athlete Meridith had been. I have a clear memory of him levitating into the air to bring down an errant Frisbee that was about 5 feet over his head.

During the Pro Bowl broadcast on Sunday, he commented that he’d spent much of that week “working on my Frisbee game.”

RIP, Dandy Don.

[NCC-1701]

Thanks for that tid-bit of info. I didn’t know that. Good for him.

[Ole Okie]

Cossell once called Meridith “Dandy Dan”.

And Howard, having imbibed to excess, once threw up on Don’s cowboy boots in the booth.

I don’t think they liked each other, but the combination was unbeatable.

[Huskrrrr]

So long Dandaroo. Riding that Wabash Cannonball in the sky.

[Iron Munro]

Darn! Another good one falls by the wayside.

The broadcast booths of today could use some talent with his wit and class.

[advertising guy]

Fran Tarkinton did not like Dandy Don either.....called him gay on saturday nite live once

[ken5050]

I seem to recall that after Cosell died, Meredith gave an inteview in which he was less than complimentary about Howard. It caused a stink at the time. Anyone else recall it?

[OrangeHoof]

Actually, ABC encouraged the “country bumpkin vs. city wiseass” banter because they knew it would hold viewers when the game wasn’t too interesting. I don’t think the two were ever chums. Cosell always resented the “star” treatment that Gifford and Meredith received for being former athletes. It was Cosell that dubbed the gaffe-prone Gifford “Faultless Frank”, because he would never catch any grief for all his on-air mistakes.

As an aside, I have some early MNF games that have recirculated among game traders and there was a late-season Steelers-Dolphins game at the Orange Bowl where Gifford was to get on the PA and introduce the performer singing the national anthem (back when television actually thought it was important to show the national anthem). As the camera followed a shapely blonde to the stage for the anthem, Gifford spoke “And now we direct your attention to the playing field for the singing of the national anthem by international country recording artist - Loretta Lynn!”

Problem was that the shapely blonde international country recording artist on the field was Lynn Anderson who made a thick scowl at the camera as the wrong name was introduced then put back on her smile before going on with the anthem.

[drjimmy]

After the camera had lingered on a beautiful young woman doing something fairly gross... “Well, she was almost perfect.”

I saw that one live. It was a lovely blonde who had the bad timing to insert her finger with a long red nail up her nose just as the camera focused on her.

[FatherFig1o155]

What do you expect? He was a lawyer...

[llevrok]

Let’s hope Howard does not puke on Don’s boots in Heaven.

[skimbell]

Me too. Never could stand the Cowboys, but I sure did like Meredith.