Posted on 12/06/2010 1:15:51 PM PST by Loud Mime
Don Meredith, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback who served as a folksy foil for Howard Cosell on ABC's ''Monday Night Football'' and helped carve out the niche for colorful ex-athlete broadcasters, has died. ''Dandy Don,'' as he was known, was 72.
Meredith's wife, Susan, told The Associated Press her husband died Sunday in Santa Fe after suffering a brain hemorrhage and lapsing into a coma. She and her daughter were at Meredith's side when he died.
''He was the best there was,'' she said Monday, describing him as kind, warm and funny. ''We lost a good one.''
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.foxsports.com ...
Bob Hayes rests in an unmarked grave, even though admirers have offered to pay for a tombstone. I suspect that his family is trying to shakedown the admirers, who quite reasonably, will not play that game.
Green Bay/Dallas played a classic NFL championship game, never in a Superbowl. Unless and until one of them changes conferences, they never will. (Green Bay went on to beat KC in the Superbowl, iirc.)
i remember in the 70’s, the Cleveland Browns had a WR named Fair Hooker..well. sure enough, Meredith mentioned the name , then dead-panned, “i never met one yet”...he was cool..no doubt.
i remember in the 70’s, the Cleveland Browns had a WR named Fair Hooker..well. sure enough, Meredith mentioned the name , then dead-panned, “i never met one yet”...he was cool..no doubt.
“He’s a perfectionist. If he was married to Raquel Welch, he’d expect her to cook.” ~ Don Meredith on Coach Landry
“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
That was back when even the lousy blow-out Monday Night Football games were fun to watch.
I became a lifelong Cowboy fan from that day forward 'cause of Dandy Don and his marelous play. He and Bob Hayes dismantled the Giants 52 to 7. The Dallas Sports writers said that Dandy Don was a thorn in Landry's side cause of his extemporaneous play calling. I'm sure that the two will flap their wings at each other.
His famous end of the the game quote fits here: Turn out the lights, the party’s over.
May he rest in peace.
ya your are right...it was 1966 or 1967 and the NFL championship....not sure if it was the year of the first Super Bowl or not.
Meredith had a reputation of being a party guy off the field, and he thought football should be fun on the field, which led to conflict with Tom Landry on more than one occassion.
Inspite of his wild and crazy guy personality, he played through an amazing amount of injuries, including playing with fractured ribs. After the play that knocked him down and fractured his ribs, Meredith couldn’t get up and asked his teammates to lift him up to his feet, telling them he could play if he could just stand up. He completed the game.
In later years Landry would call Meredith the toughest player he ever coached. Teammate Lee Roy Jordan also said he (Jordan) had seen a lot of tough players, and Meredith was the toughest of them all.
“The Dallas Sports writers said that Dandy Don was a thorn in Landry’s side cause of his extemporaneous play calling.”
Sounds just like Brett Favre. Always annoying his coaches with unplanned audibles.
I wonder how accurate the portrayal of Meredith was in the movie “North Dallas Forty.”
Meredith: "I don't know about that Howard, but they sure are throwing the ball around a lot."
Sad day for Cowboy fans.
“I wonder how accurate the portrayal of Meredith was in the movie “North Dallas Forty.”
Someone asked Meredith about the book, and his quote was “I’m in there”. As in most cases, the book is better than the movie, although the movie is good.
I can see Tom Landry up there rolling his eyes knowing that now he’s going to have to deal with Dandy Don again.
“But ya know, if you’re gonna go by something, this is a truly painless way to go”
You know, we hear all this talk of living as long as possible, but it may be better to go in your 70s when you’re still able-bodied and have all your mental faculties than go in your 90s and be a senile wreck in a nursing home.
My grandfather went at 74 (heart failure) while getting ready to help a neighbor with something. Not really that bad of a way to die, if you think about it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.