Contemporary fans of the Dallas Cowboys are quite familiar with names like Troy Aikman, Tony Romo, and Dak Prescott. But what about the guy who really kick started it all? It is hard to believe that there has never been a full length biography of early quarterback Don Meredith.
That is until now.
Longtime Dallas Morning News columnist and consumer watchdog Dave Lieber has written an illuminating account of the late football star, sports broadcaster, and actor. “Dandy Don – The First Dallas Cowboy” was released in July. It is Lieber’s third tale about a memorable Texas icon. His other books, both of which were also made into stage plays, include “Amon! The Ultimate Texan” and “Searching For Perot, My Journey to Discover Texas’ Top Family.”
Lieber follows Meredith from his modest roots in small town Mount Vernon, located about 100 miles from Dallas to football fame at SMU and later NFL glory. After surviving polio as an infant, Meredith grew into a substantial pop culture figure as the leader of “America’s Team.”
Meredith’s aw shucks demeanor contributed to his legend — he famously said he chose SMU over rival offers from bigger programs, including coach Paul “Bear” Bryant at Texas A&M, because it was “close to home and easy to spell.” In 1959, at age 21, Meredith took a daring step signing a contract to play for a team that had no name, no coach, and no other players.
While researching the book, Lieber says he was amazed at the stream of mesmerizing stories he uncovered. “Don was such a provocateur,” he says. “He made things happen to get people involved.”
“Dandy Don Meredith - The First Dallas Cowboy” details Texas businessman Clint Murchison Jr. and his efforts to secure an NFL franchise. Originally called the Dallas Rangers, the team would later be rechristened the Dallas Cowboys.
Lieber touches on memorable quarrels between Murchison and the late Lamar Hunt, whose Texans would eventually leave for his upstart American Football League (AFL) and become the Kansas City Chiefs.
The book takes readers through the Cowboys’ most tumultuous years, with sportswriters’ unflattering coverage, stories of apathetic fans jeering Meredith, and how the pressure weighed on the young quarterback.
Lieber also relates disturbing tales of segregation during travels to games around the country as well as racial divides in Dallas and within the team that impacted Black stars like “Bullet” Bob Hayes, an Olympic gold medalist who was key to the Cowboys’ success, Don Perkins, Pettis Norman, Mel Renfro, and others.
Perhaps the most captivating relationship in the book centers on famed Cowboys coach Tom Landry and Meredith, whom Lieber calls “complete opposites forced by circumstance to deal with each other in a nine-year-long soap opera steeped in drama.”
Meredith led the team to three postseason appearance. He logged 17,000 yards passing, 135 touchdowns, and 111 interceptions while completing half of his passes.
Meredith followed up his playing career with a game-changing gig as a network broadcaster on ABC’s “Monday Night Football.” A charter member of America’s “jockracy,” as Lieber refers to it, Meredith paved the road for retired sports stars to move into broadcasting.
After Meredith commentated his inaugural game in 1970, acclaimed Los Angeles Times sports columnist Jim Murray wrote that the former Cowboys QB “Comes on like a riverboat gambler with a heart of gold. He seems to have the lifestyle of a guy who expected to be shot any day by a guy he dealt four aces to.”
Over time, the team of Meredith, Frank Gifford, and Howard Cosell would define crosstalk in the booth, an undisputable formula that is still followed to this day.
“He won an Emmy for his first year in the booth because his commentary and barbs at Cosell were so enthralling that it became the number-one show in America,” says Lieber. “It wasn’t the game that people talked about; it was what happened in the booth.”
Meredith found the perfect way to close some games by crooning, “The Party’s Over,” a nod to his friend, Willie Nelson.
Meredith eventually left ABC for an expanded role at NBC, where he had a “respectable acting career” in programs such as “Police Story” and “McCloud” while he socialized with popular musicians like Jerry Jeff Walker, Roger Miller, and Nelson.
On December 5, 2010, Meredith died at age 72 in Santa Fe, N.M., and was buried in his hometown.
“Even if you think you know the Don Meredith story, you’ll still find a surprise on every page,” Lieber says. “I’m not sure how he will be remembered, (but) this book should help.”
“Dandy Don Meredith - The First Dallas Cowboy” is available at DonMeredithBook.com.