The Dandy Dallas Don

As a young college student, I worked a telephone switchboard, a busy activity that kept me out of mischief, but also provided cash toward my college financial obligations. During the summer, the Dallas Cowboys football trained on campus, so one summer, I spent some time ogling the athletes from the switchboard room located in their dorm.

The favorite was, of course, Don Meredith, a totally hot Texas cutie with a cute southern drawl that thickened as he oozed charm. The coach kept a tight rein on his boys and taught them values, along with developing their athletic skills. They gave thanks for the food on their tables, they spent time off the field as a team, and they darned well better never be late for curfew as there were consequences back in the day that involved sincere penance, rather than writing a check.

The team spent many evenings in the dorm lounge, an open area with chairs, couches, and a TV, which may not seem like a big deal, but back in the 1960s, dorms were segregated and electronics scarce. The guys always had a football with them and tossed it back and forth, shared ribald jokes, dissed one another, laughed a lot, and left for their rooms as the curfew approached.

It was fun to watch practice and see how hard professional athletes worked on their game. It was equally fun to be the fly in the switchboard room and share how hard they played at the end of the day. Dandy Don's laugh was one of the loudest, but certainly not the only one to be on the receiving end of team jokes!

It was a little bit of time in my life a long time ago, but when I heard that Don Meredith died this morning, I saw him as clearly in my mind's eye as I did all those many years ago. Hope you took a ball with you, q'back!