Don Meredith, a great Real Texan
Sometimes Real Texans just live life larger than others.
Dandy Don Meredith left this world at age 72 sometime Sunday, December 5, 2010 in Sante Fe. That’s over in far Northwest Texas somewhere. He had a brain hemorrhage and died after lapsing into a coma.
He is one of my all time favorite Real Texans. He was once quoted as saying, “I never wanted to be anything except the best Don Meredith I can be.”
Real Texans of a certain age remember Don Meredith and his skills as a football player and host of Monday Nigh Football. He was a great quarterback at SMU and later the Dallas Cowboys.
From his days as the ‘color’ commentator on Monday Night Football, we all knew that he was born in Mount Vernon, Texas. He referred to Mount Vernon often and to his parents, Jeff and Hazel. He called himself Jeff and Hazel’s baby boy. He never played a home game outside of Texas having played his high school football at Mount Vernon, his college ball at SMU, and his entire pro career was from 1960-1968 at Dallas with the Cowboys.
How’s that for being Real Texas!
And he was a heck of a quarterback. He was named to the pro bowl 3 times and is in the Cowboy Ring of Honor. It was a thing of beauty to see Meredith loft a lengthy pass to Bullet Bob Hayes and see Hayes outrun all defenders.
He retired from the Cowboys going into the 1969 season. He then joined Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford and he also worked with Keith Jackson. He was the backbone of Monday Night Football. Don Meredith often referred to SMU as Southern ‘Meredith’ University.
He made watching football the most interesting thing anyone could ever do. When there was no doubt as to the outcome of a game, he would burst into singing, “Turn out the lights, the party’s over!” If the game was close, he would say “it ain’t over ’till the fat lady sings.” He often made fun of the pompous Howard Cosell with his down to earth commentary. It was a great team of football commentators over several networks he worked for that is only approached by Terry Bradshaw these days.
When he called it quits in broadcasting, he was in several movies and was in a TV series called Police Story. He was just a natural in front of the camera and always had a quick quip. I remember one game where Houston was getting beat badly and the camera panned to a Houston Oilers fan who made a one finger gesture to the camera…Meredith quipped, “He thinks they are No. 1 in the nation.”
Don Meredith was as real as it gets. Greatly admired and beloved throughout Texas.
He wore the number 17 on his jersey.
He was a dandy!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I noticed he and JB were born only one day apart. He remembers watching him play against Baylor in those ’56-60 years and he was great. Then we both enjoyed the rest of his career as a Cowboy and an MNF guy.
Yes David, a more true, legendary Texan, you will never find. I remember watching Monday Night Football, even if the Cowboys weren’t playing, just to hear Dandy Don sing that closing number “Turn Out The Lights, The Party’s Over”. If someone asked me to define being a Texan, my answer would being Don Meredith. He had the wit, the swagger and the Texas dialect perfected.
The world lost a great man and Texas lost a Texan icon when Dandy Don passed on.
I ran the store in Mt Vernon for 6 years. There is a sign in front of the house where he grew up…