'Dandy Don' dies at 72
DALLAS — Don Meredith was the happiest, most fun-loving guy wherever he went, whether crooning country tunes in the huddle as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys or jawing with Howard Cosell in the broadcast booth as analyst on the groundbreaking “Monday Night Football.”
His irreverent personality made him one of the most beloved figures in sports and entertainment in the 1970s and 1980s, helping turn the Cowboys and “Monday Night Football” into national sensations.
“Dandy Don” died Sunday after suffering a brain hemorrhage and lapsing into a coma in Santa Fe, N.M., where he lived out of the limelight with his wife, Susan, for the last 25 years. He was 72.
A folksy foil to Cosell’s tell-it-like-it-is pomposity, Meredith was at his best with unscripted one-liners — often aimed at his broadcast partners. His trademark, though, came when one team had the game locked up. Meredith would warble, “Turn out the lights, the party’s over” — from a song by his pal Willie Nelson.
Meredith played for the Cowboys from 1960-68, taking them from winless expansion team to the brink of a championship. He was only 31 when he retired before training camp in 1969, and a year later wound up alongside Cosell in the broadcast booth for the oddity of a prime-time, weeknight NFL game.
It became a hit largely because of how much viewers enjoyed the contrast of Meredith’s Texas flair and Cosell’s East Coast braggadocio.
Friends in real life, they took opposite stances to liven up broadcasts with their bickering. Meredith usually took the majority opinion, Cosell the minority. Cosell was playing a role, while Meredith was just being himself.
“Watching him on TV was like being in the huddle with Don again,” former teammate Dan Reeves said. “He just made the game fun.”
Meredith was the life of the party in the “Monday Night” booth from 1970 through 1984, except for a three-year stint playing a detective on NBC’s “Police Story.” He spent 11 of those years teamed with another former star player, Frank Gifford, a friend before they became broadcast partners.
Meredith left “Monday Night Football” a year after Cosell and soon retired from the spotlight altogether. He just didn’t want to be famous any more.
Meredith’s second career in entertainment obscures what a great quarterback he was, taking a team from 0-11-1 in 1960 to within minutes of reaching each of the first two Super Bowls.
