Turn Out the Lights, The Party's Over

Loved Don Meredith.
 
http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/news/story?id=5890812
  
Played out his entire high school, college, and NFL career within a 100 mile radius.

Although I was too young to actually remember Don playing football, he was Cowboy legend in our home and in my mind. My favorite possession as a four year old was a hand-me-down “jersey” from my older brother that my Mom had sewn on the number 17.

RIP Dandy Don..

Meredith is one of the few people I can think of who were in public life and decided on their own terms when to quit and followed through.

Cosell never could get the best of him.

When he hung it up and retired, he completely left the public view. I recall from reading Bear Bryant’s autobiography and Bear talking about what a charismatic person and great leader he was, comparing him to Namath in more ways than one. When he visited Aggy, he had dinner at Bear’s home and he and Mary Harmon did the dishes together and sang Country and Western songs, and she was completely charmed by him, as were most who ever knew him. According to Bryant, when he called and told him he was attending SMU he cried and said how much he wished he could play for him, but he just couldn’t go to A&M (at that time they had no co-eds).

Of course, he was also the basis of the QB character in Peter Gent’s North Dallas Forty. He denied it, but everyone knew it to be true. How he and Landry managed to co-exist is one of the great mysteries of sports—-not because of either’s failings, but just because of their different personalities—-day and night.

May he rest in peace!

Sad news. RIP Dandy Don.

He had just thrown an interception & returned to the sideline when Landry got in his face & demanded “What we you thinking when you threw that pass?” Meredith’s reponse was " Tom, he was the only guy open on the play". Priceless.

I think I still have an autograph of his somewhere. He was the celebrity speaker in a Kiwanis smoker in my hometown hundreds of miles from Texas, and my dad must have stood in line to get his signature for me.

Quite a personality. He stood for an era, a place, and a way of being comfortable in the world. At least, that’s how I think of him.

A great one indeed. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts . . . .

RIP Don.

had the pleasure of meeting him when I was a young lad. he was friends with my uncle. I remember a lot of laughing as my uncle was one funny dude as well. also in that group was Dan Jenkins. if your wit wasn’t sharp around those guys, you wouldn’t last very long.

RIP, DM.

He was a sensational QB at SMU, following in the passing footsteps of Fred Benners, Benton Musselwhite, et. al. I remember in the UT-SMU game in ‘58 (I think), Meredith was hurt and didn’t play in the 1st half. It seems like the game was tied at halftime, but in the second half Meredith came in and bombed the ’Horns into submission and won going away.

R.I.P. Don Meredith.

All red-blooded boys of a certain age in North Texas wanted to be either Bob Lilly or Don Meredith.

They dont make ’em like that anymore.

Sad day indeed. As a kid growing up in the 60’s nothing was better than spending Sunday watching Dandy Don throw the deep ball to Bullet Bob Hayes. May they both rest in peace.

I was too young to watch him in his playing days, but I loved listening to him, Cosell and Gifford on MNF. He had such an effortless way of bursting Cosell’s pompous bubble. He was the perfect foil for Howard, and it made for damn good TV.

It’s a crying shame Cowboy fans of that era never really appreciated him. The story of the time he walked into a restaurant soon after that ‘68 Cleveland playoff loss and half the people there booed him mercilessly is just pathetic. The guy left his guts on the f’ing football field every Sunday. Just because he loved life and refused to take it too seriously off the field doesn’t mean he didn’t want to win as bad as anybody else on Sunday.

R.I.P. Dandy Don. Turn out the lights…

I have his football card….not mounted in a plaque from some store but in a handful of cards I collected as a kid and actually set up in imaginary alignments by position. He was in a backfield with Brian Picolo.

I think he still owns the single game scoring record at the Dr. Pepper hoops tournament.

I loved to watch him play. When he moved to the booth, I loved to hear his take on the game.

When he sang that tune, you could just see his fellow announcers and the brass at ABC cringe. Howard and Keith would try to claim that the game was still in doubt, to keep the ratings up. I don’t recall a single time when Dandy Don had to admit he was wrong.

I still sing “Turn out the lights…” whenever I see a game get out of hand. Thanks for the memories, Don.

As Texoz points out, Meredith and Jenkins were icons that made me proud to be from Texas: easy manner, witty, smart without being obnoxious about it.

“Turn out the lights . . .” as Longhorn in Canada offered, remains my favorite song to wail when a contest has been decided. One of a kind, indeed. And in an athletic arena where we oftentimes lose our perspective, Dandy Don never lost and therefore never had to look for his.

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