Joseph "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 to 1984. As an original member of the Monday Night Football broadcast team, he famously played the role of Howard Cosell's comic foil. 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 probably familiar to television audiences as Bert Jameson, a recurring role he had in Police Story. Early years Meredith was born on April 10, 1938, in Mount Vernon, Texas, located about 100 miles east of Dallas. He attended Mount Vernon High School in his hometown, where he starred in football and basketball, performed in school plays, and graduated second in his class. College career Although he was heavily recruited by Texas A&M head coach Bear Bryant, Meredith played college football at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. His reasoning, likely intended to be more humorous than real, was due to its being closer to home, and the acronym being easier to spell. He led the Southwest Conference (SWC) in passing completion percentage in each of his three years as the starting quarterback (1957–59), and was an All-America selection in 1958 and 1959. His fellow students jokingly referred to the school as "Southern Meredith University" due to his popularity on campus. He completed 8 of 20 passes for 156 yards in the College All-Stars' 32–7 loss to the defending NFL champion Baltimore Colts in Chicago on August 12, 1960. Meredith was honored twice by SMU in later decades; he was the recipient of the university's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1983, and his jersey number 17 was retired during halftime ceremonies at the SMU–Houston game on October 18, 2008. He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1982. Professional career The Dallas Cowboys franchise was admitted to the league too late to participate in the 1960 NFL Draft, so on November 28, 1959, two days before the draft, Meredith signed a five-year personal services contract with Tecon Corporation,