Don Meredith has passed away. I was three years old when he retired from the Dallas Cowboys, so suffice to say my memories of Dandy Don are from his days with Monday Night Football. Howard, Don, and Frank. Their voices became as familiar to me as my father’s.

Which is why Don’s passing is as signficant to me as Chet Simmons, who helped create ABC’s Wide World of Sports and was the first president of ESPN. As sentimental as George “Papa Bear” Halas and Walter “Sweetness” Payton. These are the men who further engaged my love of sports. My father planted the proverbial seed, these gentlemen helped to sustain the growth of my sports passion.

And while fans of MNF share their favorite Don Meredith quotes or sayings ranging from the brilliant (ad lib when a guy on camera flipped the bird: “That guy thinks their #1.”) to the…well, obscure (“Welcome to Mile High…and I really am!”), I will just recall how three men in a booth broadcasting a Monday night football game became etched in the  memory of my childhood.

God speed, Don Meredith.