Don Meredith

Meredith as Bert Jameson on Police Story, 1976.
No. 17
Quarterback
Personal information
Date of birth: (1938-04-10)April 10, 1938
Place of birth: Mount Vernon, Texas, U.S.
Date of death: December 5, 2010(2010-12-05) (aged 72)
Place of death: Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.
Career information
College: Southern Methodist
NFL Draft: 1960 / Round: 3 / Pick: 32
Debuted in 1960 for the Dallas Cowboys
Last played in 1968 for the Dallas Cowboys
Career history
Dallas Cowboys (1960–1968)
Career highlights and awards
3x Pro Bowl selection (1966, 1967, 1969) 1x AP Second-team All-Pro (1966) 1x NEA Second-team All-Pro (1968) 1966 Bert Bell Award Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor
Career NFL statistics
TD-INT 135–111 Yards 17,199 QB Rating 74.8 Stats at NFL.com
College Football Hall of Fame

Joseph Don "Dandy Don" Meredith (April 10, 1938–December 5, 2010) was an American football quarterback, sports commentator and actor. He spent all nine seasons of his professional playing career (1960–;1968) with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He 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 1970–1984. As an original member of the Monday Night Football broadcast team on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), he famously played the role of Howard Cosell's comic foil.

Football career[link]

Southern Methodist University[link]

Meredith was born on April 10, 1938 in Mount Vernon, Texas, located approximately 100 miles east of Dallas.^[1] He attended Mount Vernon High School in his hometown,^[2] where he starred in football and basketball, performed in school plays and graduated second in his class.^[3]

Even though he was heavily recruited by then-Texas A&M head coach Bear Bryant,^[3] Meredith decided to play college football at Southern Methodist University (SMU). He led the Southwest Conference in passing completion percentage in each of his three years as the starting quarterback, and was an All-America selection in 1958 and 1959.^[4] His fellow students jokingly referred to the school as "Southern Meredith University" due to his popularity on campus.^[5] He completed 8 of 20 passes for 156 yards in the College All-Stars' 32–7 loss to the Baltimore Colts in the Chicago College All-Star Game on August 12, 1960.^[6]

He would be honored twice by SMU in later decades. He was the recipient of the university's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1983. His jersey number 17 was retired during halftime ceremonies at the SMU-Houston football match on October 18, 2008.^[4] He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982.^[7]

Dallas Cowboys[link]

Meredith was selected by the Chicago Bears in the third round (32nd overall) of the 1960 NFL Draft.^[8] Bears owner George Halas made the pick to help ensure that the expansion Dallas Cowboys got off to a solid start. On November 28, 1959, one month prior to the draft, Meredith had signed a personal services contract with Tecon Corporation which, like the Cowboys, was owned by Clint Murchison. He was eventually traded to the Cowboys for a third-round pick in the following year's draft. He is considered by some to be the original Dallas Cowboy because he had come to the team even before the franchise had adopted a nickname, hired a head coach or participated in either the 1960 NFL Expansion Draft or its first NFL Draft in 1961.^[9][10] Their crosstown rivals in the American Football League, the Texans, also chose him as a "territorial selection" in their 1960 draft, but were too late to sign him.

Meredith spent two years as a backup to Eddie LeBaron, eventually splitting time in 1962 before he was given the full-time starting job by head coach Tom Landry in 1963. In 1966, Meredith led the Cowboys to the NFL postseason, something he would continue to do until his unexpected retirement before the 1969 season. His two most heartbreaking defeats came in NFL Championship play against the Green Bay Packers, 34–27 in Dallas (1966), and the famous "Ice Bowl" game, 21–17 in Green Bay (1967).

"Dandy Don," while never leading the Cowboys to a Super Bowl, was always exceptionally popular with Cowboys fans who remember him for his grit and toughness, his outgoing nature, and his leadership during the first winning seasons for the Cowboys. Meredith, along with Harvey Martin, is among the few players to play his high school (Mount Vernon), college (SMU), and pro (Dallas Cowboys) career in and around the Dallas, Texas, area. During his career, he had a 50.7 percent completion rate, throwing for 17,199 yards and 135 touchdowns with a lifetime passer rating of 74.8. He was named the NFL Player of the Year in 1966 and was named to the Pro Bowl 3 times.

Post-football career[link]

Following his football career, Meredith became a color commentator for ABC's Monday Night Football beginning in 1970. He left for 3 seasons (1974–1976) 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, intellectual analysis and Gifford's rather ponderous play-by-play technique. He was known for singing "Turn out the lights, the party's over" (a line from a Willie Nelson song, "The Party's Over") at garbage time.

Meredith's broadcasting career was also not without a few incidents of minor controversy; including referring to then-President Richard Nixon as "Tricky Dick", announcing that he was "mile-high" before a game in Denver, and turning the name of Cleveland Browns receiver Fair Hooker into a double entendre. (saying 'Fair Hooker...well, I haven't met one yet!') He retired from sportscasting after the 1984 season, a year after Cosell's retirement. His final broadcast was Super Bowl XIX with Frank Gifford and Joe Theismann, which was ABC's first Super Bowl.

Meredith also had an acting career, appearing in multiple movies and television shows, including a recurring starring role as Detective Bert Jameson on Police Story. One episode, "The Witness," features a picture of Don in his Dallas uniform hanging on a wall in Delaney's bar while Don interviews witnesses to a robbery below his picture. He was in a series of commercials in the 1980s as Lipton Tea Lover, Don Meredith, a.k.a. "Jeff and Hazel's Baby Boy". He was featured in an episode of King of the Hill, ("A Beer Can Named Desire") in which he misses a throw that would have won the main character, Hank Hill, $100,000.

In 1976, Meredith was inducted into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor at Texas Stadium along with former running back Don Perkins.

Meredith was selected as the 2007 recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. He received the award at the Enshrinee's Dinner on August 3, 2007.

Family[link]

Meredith was married three times: first wife, Lynne Shamburger, a former SMU cheerleader, which lasted from 1959–63, and produced one daughter, Mary. From 1965–71, he was married to the former Cheryl King. Two children were products of that marriage: son Michael and daughter Heather. He met his third wife, the former Susan Lessons Dullea, ex-wife of actor Keir Dullea, as they both were walking down 3rd Avenue in New York City. They married in 1972.

Death[link]

Meredith died on December 5, 2010, at the St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico, after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 72 years old.^[10]

See also[link]

• List of NFL on NBC commentator pairings
• Most consecutive games with at least two touchdown passes

References[link]

External links[link]

• DallasCowboys.com: Don Meredith
• Don Meredith at the Internet Movie Database
• Gallery of Don Meredith football cards

Bob Hayes

Running track at FAMU in 1962
No. 22
Wide receiver
Personal information
Date of birth: (1942-12-20)December 20, 1942
Place of birth: Jacksonville, Florida
Date of death: September 18, 2002(2002-09-18) (aged 59)
Place of death: Jacksonville, Florida
Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) Weight: 185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
College: Florida A&M
NFL Draft: 1964 / Round: 7 / Pick: 88
Debuted in 1965 for the Dallas Cowboys
Last played in 1975 for the San Francisco 49ers
Career history
Dallas Cowboys (1965-1974) San Francisco 49ers (1975)
Career highlights and awards
3× Pro Bowl selection (1965, 1966, 1967) 2× First-team All-Pro selection (1966, 1968) 2× Second-team All-Pro selection (1965, 1967) Super Bowl VI champion Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor Pro Football Hall of Fame (2009)
Career NFL statistics as of 1975
Receptions 371 Receiving Yards 7,414 Touchdowns 71 Stats at NFL.com
Pro Football Hall of Fame

Olympic medal record
Men's athletics
Competitor for the  United States
Gold	1964 Tokyo	100 metres
Gold	1964 Tokyo	4x100 metres relay

Robert Lee "Bullet Bob" Hayes (December 20, 1942 – September 18, 2002) was an Olympic sprinter turned American football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. An American track and field athlete, he was a two-sport stand-out in college in both track and football at Florida A&M University. Hayes was enshrined in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 2001 and was selected for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in January 2009. He was officially inducted in Canton, Ohio on August 8, 2009. Hayes is the second Olympic gold medalist to be inducted to the Hall of Fame, after Jim Thorpe.

Once considered the world's fastest man by virtue of his multiple world records in the 60-yard, 100-yard, 220-yard, and Olympic 100-meter dashes, Hayes is the only man to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring.

High school and college[link]

Hayes attended Matthew Gilbert High School (now a middle school) in Jacksonville, where he was a backup halfback on the football team. The 1958 Gilbert High Panthers finished 12-0, winning the Florida Interscholastic Athletic Association black school state championship with a 14-7 victory over Dillard High School of Fort Lauderdale before more than 11,000 spectators. In times of segregation laws, their achievement went basically unnoticed, yet 50 years later they were recognized as one of the best teams in FHSAA history.^[1][2]

Hayes was also the first person to break six seconds in the 60 yard dash with his indoor world record of 5.9 seconds. While a student at Florida A&M in 1962, Hayes ran a new world record for the 100 yard dash with a time of 9.2 seconds. The next year he broke his own record with a time of 9.1, a record that would not be broken for eleven years (until Ivory Crockett ran a 9.0 in 1974). That same year, Hayes set the world best for 200 meters (20.5 seconds, although the time was never ratified) and tied the world record for the 220 yard dash with a time of 20.6 seconds (while running into an eight mph wind).

He was the AAU 100 yard dash champion three years running, from 1962–1964, and in 1964 was the NCAA champion in the 200 meter dash. He would miss part of his senior year in college because of his 1964 Olympic bid for U.S. Gold.

Olympics[link]

At the 1964 Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, Hayes had his finest hour as a sprinter. First, he won the 100m and broke the current World Record in the 100 m with a time of 10.06 seconds, even though he was running in lane 1 which had, the day before, been used for the 10 km racewalk and this badly chewed up the cinder track. He also was running in borrowed spikes because one of his shoes had been kicked under the bed when he was playing with some friends and he didn't realize until he got there.^[3] This was followed by a second gold medal in the 4 x 100 meter relay, which also produced a new World Record (39.06 seconds).

His come-from-behind win for the US team in the relay was one of the most memorable Olympic moments. Jocelyn Delecour, France's anchor leg runner, famously said to Paul Drayton before the relay final that, "You can't win, all you have is Bob Hayes." Drayton was able to reply afterwards, "All you need..." The race was also Hayes' last as a track and field athlete, as he permanently switched to football after it. See the race on youtube.

Hayes was the first man to break ten seconds for the 100 metres, albeit wind-assisted. In the semi-finals of the 1964 Olympics, he ran a time of 9.91 seconds. The next man to run this fast at the Olympics was Donovan Bailey in 1996, 32 years later.

Professional Football Career[link]

Early Years[link]

The Dallas Cowboys drafted Hayes in the seventh round of the 1964 NFL Draft, taking a chance an Olympic sprinter with unrefined football skills could excel as a wide receiver. The bet paid off, due to his amazing feats in cleats. Hayes has been credited by many with forcing the NFL to develop a zone defense and the bump and run to attempt to contain him.^[4]

Hayes' first two seasons were most successful, during which he led the NFL both times in receiving touchdowns. In 1966 Hayes caught six passes for 195 yards against the New York Giants at the Cotton Bowl. Later, in the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins match-up, Hayes caught nine passes for 246 yards (a franchise record until Miles Austin broke it with a 250 yard-performance on October 11, 2009 against the Kansas City Chiefs). Hayes' speed forced other teams to go to a zone since no single player could keep up with him. Spreading the defense out in hopes of containing Hayes allowed the Cowboys' talented running game to flourish, rushers Don Perkins, Calvin Hill, Walt Garrison and Duane Thomas taking advantage of the diminished coverage of the line of scrimmage.

Multiple Offensive Threat[link]

In addition to receiving, Hayes returned punts for the Cowboys and was the NFL's leading punt returner in 1968 with a 20.8 yards per return average and two touchdowns, including a 90 yarder against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was named to the Pro Bowl three times and First-team All-Pro twice and Second-team All-Pro twice. He helped Dallas win five Eastern Conference titles, two NFC titles, played in two Super Bowls, and was instrumental in Dallas' first ever Super Bowl victory in 1972, making Hayes the only person to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring. Later in his career, as defenses improved playing zone and the bump and run was refined, Hayes' value as an erstwhile decoy rather than a deep threat diminished. Hayes played one season for the San Francisco 49ers before retiring.

Cowboy Records[link]

Hayes was the second player in the history of the Dallas Cowboys franchise to surpass 1000 yards receiving in a single season, and he did that in his rookie year by finishing with 1,003 yards. Also during his rookie year, he led the team with 46 receptions and set franchise records for total touchdowns (13) and total receiving touchdowns (12). He finished his 11-year career with 371 receptions for 7,414 yards and 71 touchdowns, giving him an impressive 20 yards per catch average (both career touchdowns and yards per catch average remain franchise records.) He also rushed for 68 yards, gained 581 yards on 23 kickoff returns, and returned 104 punts for 1,158 yards and three touchdowns. His 7,295 receiving yards are the fourth-most in Dallas Cowboys history.

To this day, Hayes holds ten regular-season receiving records, four punt return records and twenty-two overall franchise marks, making him one of the greatest receivers to ever play for the Cowboys.

Death[link]

On September 18, 2002, Hayes died in his hometown Jacksonville of kidney failure, after battling prostate cancer and liver ailments.^[5]

Pro Football Hall of Fame[link]

2004 Controversy[link]

Hayes was close to being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004, but was denied the opportunity in the final round of decision making. The decision was marred by controversy, with many claiming that the Hall of Fame Senior Selection Committee had a bias against members of the Dallas Cowboys and other NFL teams.^{[citation needed]} Others believe Hayes' legal and drug use issues marred his chances.^{[citation needed]} Shortly after the announcement of the new 2004 Hall of Fame members, long-time Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman resigned from the Selection Committee in protest of the decision to leave Hayes out of the Hall. Zimmerman is now back in as one of the Hall of Fame voters ([1]).

2009 Induction[link]

On August 27, 2008 Hayes was named as one of two senior candidates for the 2009 Hall of Fame election.^[6] On Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009, he was selected as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2009.^[4]

The next day Lucille Hester released a letter she claimed he had drafted three years before he died, on October 29, 1999, in case he did not live to see his induction. Its full text read:

You know I am not sure I am going to be around if I get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame so you must read this for me, I am not sure, I guess I am feeling sorry for myself at this time but you must remember everything I want you to do and say. Mother said you would do what I want because you always did. So read this for me.

I would like to thank everyone who supported me to get into the NFL Hall of Fame, the Dallas Cowboys organization, all of my team mates and everyone who played for the Cowboys, (thank the San Francisco 49ers too). Thank the fans all around the country and the world, thank the committee who voted for me and also the ones who may did not vote for me, thank Mother and my family, thank Roger Stauback [sic] and tell all my teammates I love them dearly.

Thank the Pro Football Hall of Fame, all the NFL teams and players, Florida A&M University, thank everyone who went to Matthew Gilbert High School, thank everyone in Jacksonville and Florida and everyone especially on the East Side of Jacksonville. Thank everyone in the City of Dallas and in Texas and just thank everyone in the whole world.

I love you all.

Delivered by Hester in front of hundreds and a national cable television audience, the moment was described as "... one of the most compelling and touching scenes the Hall of Fame has seen."^[7] Shortly after, it was discovered that the supposedly signed letter was printed in the Calibri font, which didn't exist until five years after Hayes' death.^[8] Some family members are disputing Lucille Hester's claim to be related to Bob and are taking steps to ensure she is not part of the Hall of Fame ceremony.^[9][10] On August 8, 2009, Bob Hayes was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Roger Staubach, Bob's Dallas Cowboy teammate, along with Bob's son Bob Hayes Jr, unveiled the bust, which was sculpted by Scott Myers. On hand were six members of Bob's Gilbert High School championship team.^[11]

References[link]

• Wallechinsky, David (2004). The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics, Toronto: Sport Classic Books. ISBN 1-894963-34-2

External links[link]

Biography portal

• IAAF profile for Bob Hayes
• http://run-down.com/guests/jc_bobhayes.php
• "Bob Hayes". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6788320. Retrieved August 12, 2010. 
• Gallery of Bob Hayes football cards