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Willie Nelson made "Turn Out the Lights, The Party's Over'' into a country music standard.But to folks of a certain age, it will always be the signature of Don Meredith, the frivolous foil to Howard Cosell on "Monday Night Football," who died Sunday night at age 72.
To Texans, Meredith may be the first player signed by the Dallas Cowboys. To the nation he will always be the good-natured ex-quarterback who punctured Cosell's pomposity during what are fondly remembered as the golden days of television's Monday night showcase: "Howard, Frank and 'Dandy Don.' ''
Meredith was signed by the Cowboys on Nov. 28, 1959, after starring at Southern Methodist, the first player signed by an expansion franchise hastily put together to counter the American Football League's 1960 startup franchise in Dallas. As a native of Mount Vernon in East Texas and a star at a local university, he provided instant box office appeal for a franchise that was more than a decade away from becoming "America's Team'' -- their first year, the Cowboys didn't win a game, their only satisfaction a 31-31 tie with the New York Giants, the two-time Eastern Conference champion whose offensive coordinator, Tom Landry, had become the Cowboys' first coach.
Meredith blossomed into one of the NFL's more effective QBs, especially as the Cowboys began winning. But in 1968, after leading the Cowboys to two NFL championship games, including the "Ice Bowl'' in Green Bay, he suddenly retired at age 31, saying simply he didn't have his heart in the game.
"I don't know how badly I'd feel if I wasn't remembered at all,'' he said famously after a career in which he never played a home game outside of East Texas -- he grew up in Mount Vernon and played his college and pro ball in Dallas and his retirement came as he was approaching contemporaries like Bart Star and Sonny Jurgensen (if not John Unitas) in the quarterback ranks. Although to be fair, his interception in the 1966 title game contributed to a 34-27 loss to the Packers that helped keep the Cowboys out of the first Super Bowl.
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Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/12/06/don-meredith-an-appreciation/
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