Dan's network break came after Hurricane Carla, which he was sent to cover by a Houston station. JFK/Dallas came later.
Fine. I'll go along with that. But then how did the story get around that he made his bones on the Kennedy assassination, that he was a nobody until that event? It seems to me the story came from Dan Rather himself. I remember him discussing it on a panel show with Robert McNeil, who also began his rise to prominence on November 22, 1963 on the streets of Dallas.
I don't remember Rather discussing any earlier glorious coverage of Hurricane Carla which brought him to the attention of the New York brass, nor any mention of the fact that he had already worked with the top on-air guy at the network and a former president of the United States months before Kennedy was killed.
I'm not saying Rather hasn't included an accurate career chronology in his books and in other written records. Frankly I don't know one way or another about that, since it would be a cold day in hell before I'd ever read his books. I'm just saying that the legend of Dan Rather making his name during coverage of the Kennedy assassination is too well known to be accidental, and Rather is the prime suspect for its promulgation over the years.