 Meredith with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s | |||||||||
| No. 17 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position: | Quarterback | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | April 10, 1938 Mount Vernon, Texas, U.S. | ||||||||
| Died: | December 5, 2010 (aged 72) Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 210 lb (95 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon, Texas) | ||||||||
| College: | SMU | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1960 / round: 3 / pick: 32 | ||||||||
| AFL draft: | 1960 / round: 1 / pick: territorial | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Joseph Donald Meredith (April 10, 1938 – December 5, 2010), nicknamed "Dandy Don" was an American football player, sports commentator, and actor who played quarterback for nine seasons with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the SMU Mustangs, and was selected by the Chicago Bears 32nd overall in the 1960 NFL Draft, which took place in November 1959. This draft occurred before the Dallas Cowboys were officially established in January 1960. The Cowboys later acquired Meredith's rights through a trade, allowing them to sign him. He was the second starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, following Eddie LeBaron,[1] and is the first major franchise quarterback in Cowboys history. Under the mentorship of head coach Tom Landry, Meredith led the Cowboys to three-straight postseason appearances from the 1966 to 1968 seasons, including back-to-back NFL Championship Game appearances in the 1966 and 1967 seasons. He was selected a second-team All-Pro in 1966 and made three-straight Pro Bowls from 1966 to 1968.
Meredith was named to the Pro Bowl in each of his last three years as a player. He subsequently became a color analyst for NFL telecasts from 1970 to 1984. As an original member of the Monday Night Football broadcast team, alongside Howard Cosell. Meredith was also an actor who appeared in a dozen films and seven major television shows, some of which had him as the main starring actor. He is familiar to television audiences as Bert Jameson, a recurring role he had in Police Story.
- ^ de la Rosa, Poch (August 23, 2022). "The Life And Career Of Eddie LeBaron (Story)". www.profootballhistory.com. Retrieved November 24, 2023.