RIP "Dandy" Don Meredith

[usaosooner]

coming across on twitter he passed last night at 72 years old.. A Dallas Cowboys legend

[CrimsonRez]

RIP Dandy Don

[WA. Sooner]

Guess his party is over

[Bonecrusher#31]

He's still alive people.

[AlbqSooner]

The original, and most colorful, of the color commentators on MNF. RIP

[cleller]

Wow, didn't see that coming. Remember him on the old Police Story show?

[olevetonahill]

Nothing in the news yet that I can find after a quick search

[Whet]

^ same here

[Sooners78]

^ same here

Don't see anything either.

[Monster Zero]

coming across on twitter he passed last night at 72 years old.. A Dallas Cowboys legend

One of the all-time good guys of the sports world. Sad to hear about it...

[Wishboned]

I don't think it's time to turn out the lights just yet.

[OklahomaTuba]

Wonder if he still hates being called "Dandy"?

[boomermet]

Remeber what he would say about "ifs".. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts we would all have a Merry Christmas!.

[texaspokieokie]

RIP !!

just saw it on espn.

[GrapevineSooner]

Dallas Morning News also reporting it as well :(

[TUSooner]

RIP Don. Back when I was a kid and a Cowboy fan, he was The Man. My cousin and I waited in in line at some store in OKC just to see him and get a black & white photo of him with his autograph pre-printed on it. (He was wearing a cast, so he couldn't sign autographs. I always wondered if it was fake cast.) Anyway, he handed us the picture himself, and we were satsified. :D His sig looked like "Oon Menedittle."

MNF has never been quite the same without Howard Cosell and Dandy Don.

[texas bandman]

Turn out the lights the party's over. RIP Don.

[Whet]

'Dandy' Don Meredith dies after brain hemorrhage



http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Dandy-Don-Meredith-dies-after-brain-hemorrhage-84455160

[aero]

RIP and thanks for the memories Dandy Don.

[Sooner98]

CEqFLI6sMu0

[OUmillenium]

My dad got me his autography in Sante Fe while snow skiing about 25 years ago. Always been a Cowboy fan and a Dandy Don fan.

[picasso]

He was great on Monday Night Football. Loved that guy.:(

[WestLakeHillsSooner]

One of my all-time favorites. RIP Dandy Don.

[Mississippi Sooner]

I don't think the younger generation will ever be able to appreciate how fun MNF was back in the 1970s and through the early 80s. That combo of Cosell, Meredith and Gifford worked so well not because it was scripted to be funny, but because they just had a chemistry. Meredith wasn't trying to be funny, but his down home, laid back style clashed with the super-serious Cosell in a way that all of middle America appreciated. And then, when Cosell would start to get indignant about the way "those jocks" (and Gifford did play the straight man to perfection) were treating the situation, they could make even a blow out entertaining.

It took ABC a long time to realize that they couldn't capture lightning in a bottle. Their attempts at re-creating that atmosphere by putting a comedian in the booth were doomed to failure. They didn't understand that Dandy Don didn't set out to be funny, he was just put in the right place at the right time.

[stoopified]

RIP Dandy Don

[TUSooner]

I don't think the younger generation will ever be able to appreciate how fun MNF was back in the 1970s and through the early 80s. That combo of Cosell, Meredith and Gifford worked so well not because it was scripted to be funny, but because they just had a chemistry. Meredith wasn't trying to be funny, but his down home, laid back style clashed with the super-serious Cosell in a way that all of middle America appreciated. And then, when Cosell would start to get indignant about the way "those jocks" (and Gifford did play the straight man to perfection) were treating the situation, they could make even a blow out entertaining.

It took ABC a long time to realize that they couldn't capture lightning in a bottle. Their attempts at re-creating that atmosphere by putting a comedian in the booth were doomed to failure. They didn't understand that Dandy Don didn't set out to be funny, he was just put in the right place at the right time.

Great post. I just caught a few short clips from MNF with Howard and Don over on ESPN. ABC has never been able to duplicate the great chemistry of those days. As you said, Don and Howard were very unlike each other, but they liked each other and played so well off each other that they were fun to watch. Even if the game was a total snoozer, they still made the game seem fun. It makes me cringe to think of Dennis Miller and Tony Kornheiser and all the other guys they tried in that booth since the end of Howard and Don. Not that the other guys were bad - I like 'em all - but because they just could never come close to what MNF used to be. (I will say that Alex Karras was pretty funny during his short MNF stint. He deadpanned that Otis Sistrunk, one of the earliest shaved-head players, was from the University of Mars.) Nowadays, MNF is just the last game of the weekend, with typical X & O announcing and the usual ultra-annoying graphics and noise-music. You can turn off the sound and not miss much. In the early days, it was an event, and you always wanted to listen because either Howard or Don would eventually say something that you would talk about at school the next day.
Don was awesome.

[landrun]

MNF has never been the same. It was GREAT back then. I loved watching it growing up.