Fort Worth Star-Telegram Story For The Old Timers
Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 4:59 pmFort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas)
November 11, 2007 Sunday
That's just Dandy;
Don Meredith never forgot his roots and now the town is returning the favor
BY: DAVID CASSTEVENS, Star-Telegram staff writer
Mount Vernon Mayor J.D. Baumgardner, left, Ken Greer and Frankie Cooper take a closer look at the Don Meredith exhibit at the Franklin County Museum.
A billboard along Interstate 30 reminds visitors of Mount Vernon's most famous son.
Map: Franklin County Museum
MOUNT VERNON -- The biggest attraction at the Franklin County Museum isn't its collection of Indian arrowheads or butterflies or even a century-old egg of the extinct Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis).
What's drawing visitors -- what the museum advertises on a billboard along Interstate 30 -- is a display that tells the life story of one of Mount Vernon's own, Joe Donald Meredith.
"Don is our claim to fame," said Mayor J.D. Baumgardner.
The Don Meredith Exhibit occupies the ground floor of an old stone building that once served as City Hall and the fire station. Museum admission is free, but the mayor happily reported that since the exhibit opened last year "we've got $3,500 [in donations] in the pickle jar."
Meredith grew up in this northeast Texas community, starred on the high school football and basketball teams, became an All-America quarterback at SMU and spent nine seasons (1960-68) with the Cowboys.
The winner of the Bert Bell Award as pro football's most valuable player in 1966 led the Cowboys to the league championship game that season. Dallas lost to the eventual Super Bowl I champion Green Bay Packers. Next year Dallas fell to Vince Lombardi's Packers 21-17 in one of the most famous games in NFL lore, the "Ice Bowl," which decided the NFL title and a trip to Super Bowl II.
After football, Meredith served as a popular, folksy co-host on ABC's Monday Night Football from 1970-73 and 1977-84.
A member of the Cowboys Ring of Honor, Meredith this year was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a broadcaster. He received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, and the shiny plaque hangs on one wall of his hometown's exhibit.
Meredith, 69, lives in Santa Fe, N.M., but never forgot his roots.
"The deepest effects on my life came during my 18 years in Mount Vernon," Meredith said. "The small-town life, the decency, the caring and the values shaped me. I not only wanted to share my good fortune, but keep the heart of this place out there for others to see and hopefully be inspired by."
He still wears his Mount Vernon High School ring -- Class of '56.
"It keeps alive the happy times. The memories bring me great joy."
Ten years ago he and wife Susan donated $150,000 to establish a scholarship fund in partnership with the Mount Vernon Rotary Club, in memory of Meredith's parents. Every year, one male and one female senior at Mount Vernon High School receive $5,000 each.
Jeff and Hazel Meredith owned a dry goods store on the town square, near where the small two-story museum stands. According to a story in Memories of Don Meredith and Hometown Mount Vernon,a book sold at the museum, Don went to work at the store as a child. His father told the 6-year-old, as he sat on the counter, "Son, when you see someone come in that door, you greet 'em by their name. Even a dog likes to hear his name."
Meredith scored 52 points in one high school game at the 1954 Dr Pepper Cotton Bowl basketball tournament in Dallas, which Mount Vernon won. The team trophy is on display. So is Meredith's white Mount Vernon Tigers football jersey with the number "88" in purple, the same number his older brother, Billy Jack, had worn. The exhibit includes Meredith's high school letter jacket, a childhood basketball, photos and an array of other personal treasures.
One is Meredith's 1957 Wurlitzer jukebox, which has been refurbished.
Visitors who push the "D1" button will hear a musical rarity -- a Dot Records 45 vinyl recording of Meredith crooning Travelin' Man.
Part of the Meredith lore is a story about a Cowboys game at the Cotton Bowl when pass protection broke down and the quarterback got blindsided and flattened by a defensive lineman. Lying on the field, pale-faced, grimacing in pain, he looked up at the trainers kneeling above him.
"Why did I ever do it?" Meredith muttered.
"Do what?" one trainer asked.
"Why did I ever leave Mount Vernon?"
"I got hit in the head a lot, but I probably did say just that," Meredith recalled. "It was an attempt to bring levity to the occasion. I do remember, later on, when I got crushed, saying, 'Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do.'"
Meredith's career highlights
1. All-American at SMU in 1958-59
2. Selected by the Chicago Bears in the third round of 1960 NFL Draft, then traded to expansion Cowboys for future draft picks.
3. NFL Pro Bowl selection from 1966-68.
4. Selected Maxwell Club's NFL Player of the Year in 1966, passing for 2,805 yards and 24 TDs and running for 242 yards and five TDs.
5. Led Cowboys to the NFL Championship Game in 1966, where they lost to the eventual Super Bowl I champion Green Bay Packers 34-27.
6. In 1967, led Cowboys back to the NFL Championship Game, where they again lost to the Packers 21-17 in the "Ice Bowl."
7. Selected to Cowboys Ring of Honor in 1976.
8. Received the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 2007 for his work as a broadcaster.
'Dandy' slogans
Some of the sayings Don Meredith popularized over his career:
"Turn out the lights, the party's over."
Crooning favorite when the game was decided on Monday Night Football
"If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?"
As told to Howard Cosell on MNF
"If [Tom Landry] was married to Raquel Welch, he'd expect her to cook."
Quoted by Wallace O. Chariton in This Dog'll Hunt
"Welcome to the Mile High City ... and I really am."
Opening a MNF broadcast in Denver
November 11, 2007 Sunday
That's just Dandy;
Don Meredith never forgot his roots and now the town is returning the favor
BY: DAVID CASSTEVENS, Star-Telegram staff writer
Mount Vernon Mayor J.D. Baumgardner, left, Ken Greer and Frankie Cooper take a closer look at the Don Meredith exhibit at the Franklin County Museum.
A billboard along Interstate 30 reminds visitors of Mount Vernon's most famous son.
Map: Franklin County Museum
MOUNT VERNON -- The biggest attraction at the Franklin County Museum isn't its collection of Indian arrowheads or butterflies or even a century-old egg of the extinct Carolina Parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis).
What's drawing visitors -- what the museum advertises on a billboard along Interstate 30 -- is a display that tells the life story of one of Mount Vernon's own, Joe Donald Meredith.
"Don is our claim to fame," said Mayor J.D. Baumgardner.
The Don Meredith Exhibit occupies the ground floor of an old stone building that once served as City Hall and the fire station. Museum admission is free, but the mayor happily reported that since the exhibit opened last year "we've got $3,500 [in donations] in the pickle jar."
Meredith grew up in this northeast Texas community, starred on the high school football and basketball teams, became an All-America quarterback at SMU and spent nine seasons (1960-68) with the Cowboys.
The winner of the Bert Bell Award as pro football's most valuable player in 1966 led the Cowboys to the league championship game that season. Dallas lost to the eventual Super Bowl I champion Green Bay Packers. Next year Dallas fell to Vince Lombardi's Packers 21-17 in one of the most famous games in NFL lore, the "Ice Bowl," which decided the NFL title and a trip to Super Bowl II.
After football, Meredith served as a popular, folksy co-host on ABC's Monday Night Football from 1970-73 and 1977-84.
A member of the Cowboys Ring of Honor, Meredith this year was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a broadcaster. He received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, and the shiny plaque hangs on one wall of his hometown's exhibit.
Meredith, 69, lives in Santa Fe, N.M., but never forgot his roots.
"The deepest effects on my life came during my 18 years in Mount Vernon," Meredith said. "The small-town life, the decency, the caring and the values shaped me. I not only wanted to share my good fortune, but keep the heart of this place out there for others to see and hopefully be inspired by."
He still wears his Mount Vernon High School ring -- Class of '56.
"It keeps alive the happy times. The memories bring me great joy."
Ten years ago he and wife Susan donated $150,000 to establish a scholarship fund in partnership with the Mount Vernon Rotary Club, in memory of Meredith's parents. Every year, one male and one female senior at Mount Vernon High School receive $5,000 each.
Jeff and Hazel Meredith owned a dry goods store on the town square, near where the small two-story museum stands. According to a story in Memories of Don Meredith and Hometown Mount Vernon,a book sold at the museum, Don went to work at the store as a child. His father told the 6-year-old, as he sat on the counter, "Son, when you see someone come in that door, you greet 'em by their name. Even a dog likes to hear his name."
Meredith scored 52 points in one high school game at the 1954 Dr Pepper Cotton Bowl basketball tournament in Dallas, which Mount Vernon won. The team trophy is on display. So is Meredith's white Mount Vernon Tigers football jersey with the number "88" in purple, the same number his older brother, Billy Jack, had worn. The exhibit includes Meredith's high school letter jacket, a childhood basketball, photos and an array of other personal treasures.
One is Meredith's 1957 Wurlitzer jukebox, which has been refurbished.
Visitors who push the "D1" button will hear a musical rarity -- a Dot Records 45 vinyl recording of Meredith crooning Travelin' Man.
Part of the Meredith lore is a story about a Cowboys game at the Cotton Bowl when pass protection broke down and the quarterback got blindsided and flattened by a defensive lineman. Lying on the field, pale-faced, grimacing in pain, he looked up at the trainers kneeling above him.
"Why did I ever do it?" Meredith muttered.
"Do what?" one trainer asked.
"Why did I ever leave Mount Vernon?"
"I got hit in the head a lot, but I probably did say just that," Meredith recalled. "It was an attempt to bring levity to the occasion. I do remember, later on, when I got crushed, saying, 'Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do.'"
Meredith's career highlights
1. All-American at SMU in 1958-59
2. Selected by the Chicago Bears in the third round of 1960 NFL Draft, then traded to expansion Cowboys for future draft picks.
3. NFL Pro Bowl selection from 1966-68.
4. Selected Maxwell Club's NFL Player of the Year in 1966, passing for 2,805 yards and 24 TDs and running for 242 yards and five TDs.
5. Led Cowboys to the NFL Championship Game in 1966, where they lost to the eventual Super Bowl I champion Green Bay Packers 34-27.
6. In 1967, led Cowboys back to the NFL Championship Game, where they again lost to the Packers 21-17 in the "Ice Bowl."
7. Selected to Cowboys Ring of Honor in 1976.
8. Received the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 2007 for his work as a broadcaster.
'Dandy' slogans
Some of the sayings Don Meredith popularized over his career:
"Turn out the lights, the party's over."
Crooning favorite when the game was decided on Monday Night Football
"If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts, wouldn't it be a Merry Christmas?"
As told to Howard Cosell on MNF
"If [Tom Landry] was married to Raquel Welch, he'd expect her to cook."
Quoted by Wallace O. Chariton in This Dog'll Hunt
"Welcome to the Mile High City ... and I really am."
Opening a MNF broadcast in Denver