Don Meredith

At 72 years old, Don Meredith has this physical status:

Joseph "Dandy" Don Meredith (April 10, 1938 – December 5, 2010) was an American football quarterback, sports commentator and actor.

He spent all nine seasons of his professional playing career (1960–1968) with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL).

He was named to the Pro Bowl in each of his last three years as a player.

He subsequently became a color analyst for NFL telecasts from 1970–1984.

As an original member of the Monday Night Football broadcast team on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), he famously played the role of Howard Cosell's comic foil.

Meredith was also an actor who appeared in a dozen films and in seven major television shows, some of which had him as the main starring actor.

He is probably familiar to television audiences as Bert Jameson, a recurring role he had in Police Story.

Early years

Meredith was born on April 10, 1938, in Mount Vernon, Texas, located approximately 100 miles east of Dallas. He attended Mount Vernon High School in his hometown, where he starred in football and basketball, performed in school plays and graduated second in his class.

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College career

Despite being heavily recruited by then-Texas A&M head coach Bear Bryant, Meredith decided to play college football at Southern Methodist University (SMU). His reasoning, which was likely intended to be more amusing than true, was due to the fact that it was closer to home and the acronym being simpler to understand. In each of his three years as the starting quarterback, he led the Southwest Conference in passing completion percentages, and he was an All-America pick in 1958 and 1959. Due to his fame on campus, his fellow students jokingly referred to the school as "Southern Meredith University." In the Chicago College All-Star Game against the Baltimore Colts on August 12, 1960, he completed 8 of 20 passes for 156 yards.

In the following decades, SMU will honor him twice. In 1983, he was named the recipient of the university's Distinguished Alumni Award. At halftime ceremonies at the SMU–Houston football game on October 18, 2008, his number 17 was retired. In 1982, he was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Meredith signed a five-year personal services contract with Tecon Corporation, which was owned by Clint Murchison, but the Dallas Cowboys franchise was too late to participate in the 1960 NFL Draft. He was planning to attend law school before the contract was signed. If and when they were acquired a NFL franchise, he would play for the Cowboys if and when they were to win an NFL franchise. In the third round (32nd overall) of the 1960 NFL Draft, the Chicago Bears made the pick to help ensure that the expansion Cowboys got off to a good start. The NFL honored the deal, but the Bears were compensated by the Cowboys with a third-round pick in the 1962 NFL Draft. He was regarded by some as the original Dallas Cowboys even before the franchise acquired a nickname, hired a head coach (Tom Landry), scout (Gil Brandt), or played in either the 1960 NFL Expansion Draft or its first NFL Draft in 1961. In the 1960 draft, the Texans, their crosstown rivals in the American Football League, selected him as a "territorial pick" but were unable to sign him.

Meredith spent two years as a back-up to Eddie LeBaron, then splitting time in 1962 before being given the full-time starting position by head coach Tom Landry in 1963. Meredith led the Cowboys to the NFL postseason in 1966, something he would continue to do until his unexpected retirement before the 1969 season. His two most heartbreaking losses came in NFL Championship play against the Green Bay Packers, 34–27 in Dallas (1966), when he was intercepted on a 4th down passing play, inadequate staff, and formation on the field; and the legendary "Ice Bowl" game, 21–17 in Green Bay (1967). He suffered physically and mentally exhausted as a leader in 1968 against the Cleveland Browns in the Eastern Conference Championships game, tossing three interceptions before being suspended, resulting in his retirement in 1969 at the age 31. Craig Morton, his replacement, would also fail to win a championship until Roger Staubach would be the missing ingredient to help the 1971 Cowboys win their first Super Bowl.

Meredith, although he never led the Cowboys to a Super Bowl, was always popular with Cowboys fans, who recall him for his grit and toughness, his outgoing personality, and his leadership during the Cowboys' first winning seasons. He had a 50.7 percent completion rate in his career, throwing for 17,199 yards and 135 touchdowns with a lifetime passer rating of 74.8. In 1966, he was named the Best Player of the Year and three times to the Pro Bowl. According to the NFL, Bob Hayes made the longest pass with no yards after catch (YAC). However, the NFL does not have statistics on the distance between actual passes.

Meredith and Harvey Martin are among the few players to play in and around Dallas, Texas, including Brandon.

Post-football career

Meredith became a color commentator for Monday Night Football beginning in 1970, following his football career. Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell joined him for three seasons (1974-1976) to work with Curt Gowdy at NFL on NBC before returning to MNF partners Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell. In comparison to Cosell's observations and Gifford's play-by-play strategy, his approach to color commentary was light-hearted and folksy. He was known for singing "turn out the lights, the party's over" (a line from Willie Nelson's "The Party's Over) at garbage time.

Meredith's broadcasting career was not without a few minor incidents, including calling then-President Richard Nixon "ricky Dick" before a game in Denver and turning the name of Cleveland Browns receiver Fair Hooker into a double entendre (saying "I haven't met one yet." He resigned from sportscasting after the 1984 season, a year after Cosell's retirement. Frank Gifford and Joe Theismann were present in his final broadcast, which was ABC's first Super Bowl broadcast. He moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lived in seclusion as a painter until his death.

Don Perkins, a former running back, was inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 1976.

The book North Dallas Forty, written by former Dallas Cowboy wide receiver and Meredith teammate Peter Gent, is a fictional account of life in the NFL during the 1960s, including quarterback Seth Maxwell, who is widely believed to be based on Meredith, and receiver Phil Elliot, who is based on Gent. Maxwell and Elliot have been described as boozing, womanizing, old actors in their careers' twilight, held together by pills and alcohol. "I'd have known Gent was as good as he says," Meredith said of his account, "I'd have thrown him more."

Meredith was selected as the 2007 recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. On August 3, 2007, he was given the award at the Enshrinee's Dinner.

Acting career

Meredith has also worked in films and television shows, appearing in numerous films and television series. He was involved in a string of Lipton Tea advertisements from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. He appeared in an episode of King of the Hill ("A Beer Can Name Desire") in which he fails a throw that would have won the main character, Hank Hill, $100,000. He appeared in his son Michael Meredith's Three Days of Rain, as Blythe Danner, Peter Falk, and Jason Patric.

Kelly Freeman was one of his early film appearances in the 1974 film Terror on the 40th Floor, which starred John Forsythe, Joseph Campanella, and Lynn Carlin.

Detective Bert Jameson of Police Story was one of his recurring starring roles. Tony Lo Bianco served as Det for as long as Det. Calabrese appears in the same number of episodes as Meredith. In later episodes, they also appeared as their characters in separate stories. Meredith in his Dallas uniform hangs on a wall in Delaney's bar, while Bert interviews witnesses to a robbery below his photograph.

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