Joseph Don "Dandy Don" Meredith (April 10, 1938 – December 5, 2010) was an American football quarterback, sports commentator and actor. He played nine full seasons in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys.
Meredith was born in Mt. Vernon, Texas, located approximately 100 miles northeast of Dallas. He played college football at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he started at quarterback for three years, leading the Southwest Conference in passing completion percentage each year and getting selected as an All-American in 1958 and 1959. Meredith was so popular on campus that many at the time jokingly referred to the school as "Southern Meredith University." Meredith was named All-American in 1958 and 1959.
In 1966, Meredith led the Cowboys to the NFL postseason, something he would continue to do until his unexpected retirement before the 1969 season. His two most heartbreaking defeats came in NFL Championship play against the Green Bay Packers, 34–27 in Dallas (1966), and in the famous "Ice Bowl" game, 21–17 in Green Bay (1967).
Following his football career, Meredith became a color commentator for ABC's Monday Night Football beginning in 1970. He left for three seasons (1974 to 1976) to work with Curt Gowdy at NBC, then returned to MNF partners Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell. His approach to color commentary was light-hearted and folksy, in contrast to Cosell's detailed and intellectual analysis and Gifford's rather ponderous play-by-play technique. He was known for singing "Turn out the lights, the party's over" at the time the game was apparently decided.
Meredith also had an acting career, appearing in multiple movies and television shows, including a recurring starring role on "Police Story." He was in a series of commercials in the 1980s as Lipton Tea Lover, Don Meredith, a.k.a. "Jeff and Hazel's Baby Boy". Meredith was also featured in an episode of King of the Hill, ("A Beer Can Named Desire") in which he misses a throw that would have won the main character, Hank Hill, $100,000.
He is survived by his wife, Susan.
(sources: USA Today, ESPN, Wikipedia)
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