Don Meredith, Former NFL Great QB, MNF Broadcaster, Dead at Age 72

Damn. He was a good announcer.

Cycloptichorn

and..as he was known for the famous quote: "Turn out the lights, the party's over."

RIP dandy don...

A comment by sports journalist don banks -

As a kid, I grew up with an intense dislike of everything about the Cowboys, who were in their full-blown America's Team era in the '70s. But the funny thing is, I loved everything about Don Meredith, and I never held the Cowboys against him. He was the very best part of watching Monday Night Football, and I'd still take him as a color analyst (emphasis on the color) over any of today's talking heads. Come to think of it, I've never even heard of anyone not liking Don Meredith, and how many folks can you say that about? Rest in peace, Dandy Don.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/don_banks/12/08/nfl-power-rankings-week-14/index.html#ixzz17YRcelwP

nice write-up by richard sandomir in today's NYT...

Channeling Howard Cosell, Speaking of Don Meredith

"If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas” was a proverb of Don Meredith, former SMU and Dallas Cowboys quarterback and Monday Night Football announcer. The proverb (in other forms) is older, but Meredith helped popularize it."
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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 pondorous 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.

17 December 1970, Ada (OK) Evening News, pg. 7, col. 1:
Howard: “If Los Angeles wins, it’s a big one, but San Francisco is still very much in it.”
Dan: “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.”
Howard: “I didn’t think you’d remember that old canard.”
Dan: “Is that what it was?”


My late brother and I used to watch MNF together. It was real bonding experience watching the game and Dandy Don and 'The Mouth that Roared'. That dynamic they had was a show unto itself. You can't write that dialogue in a script ... such interaction was the stuff networks dream of but could never plan.