Don Meredith, a founding member of the Dallas Cowboys and Monday Night Football broadcasts before his semi-retirement to Santa Fe 26 years ago, died Sunday night at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. He was 72.

Meredith, who in recent years had battled emphysema and suffered a stroke in 2004, died after suffering a brain hemorrhage and lapsing into a coma, according to his third wife, Susan.

"I saw him a few months ago, and he was hurting," former fellow sportscaster Frank Gifford said before choking up during a halftime tribute on Monday night's National Football League game broadcast.

Meredith's folksy humor and hijinks — what booth-mate Howard Cosell called "Texas corn pone" — was credited Monday by team owners, broadcasters and league officials with helping boost the NFL audience.

In all, Meredith worked 12 seasons on Monday Night Football, and when he retired in 1984 he made few public appearances, choosing instead to have a private life in Santa Fe.

He engaged in quiet philanthropy, including helping various Santa Fe charities and arts organizations, once appearing in a local United Way television spot. A golfer, he lent his presence and his 12 handicap to charity tournaments.

Meredith, who earned the nickname "Dandy Don" for his fun-loving personality, was born April 10, 1938, in Mount Vernon, Texas, about 100 miles northeast of Dallas. He played college football at SMU, a school he chose because it was, Meredith would joke, "easy to spell."

He was an All-American quarterback his final two seasons at Southern Methodist University. Meredith signed a personal-services contract with Dallas Cowboys founder Clint Murchison Jr. in 1959, two months before the franchise officially gained admittance into the NFL. A third-round pick of the Chicago Bears in the 1960 NFL draft, Meredith was traded to the Cowboys for future draft picks.

In 1965, Dallas coach Tom Landry made Meredith his starting quarterback, a position at which he endured bone-jarring punishment from defensive linemen. In 1966, Meredith took the Cowboys to the playoffs, where his team was beaten 34-27 by the Green Bay Packers. In 1967, it was the Packers again who eliminated Meredith's Cowboys from the playoffs, 21-17, in a game famously called the "Ice Bowl" because of the frigid weather conditions in Green Bay. "Coldest I've ever been," Meredith said afterward.

Two years after retiring abruptly from the Cowboys after the 1968 season, a year when he was booed and benched, and after a brief stint as a stockbroker, Meredith joined Cosell and Keith Jackson to call NFL games on ABC. A year later, Frank Gifford replaced Jackson.

Meredith left ABC in 1973 and spent three years at NBC before returning to the Monday Night Football franchise at ABC in 1977. He retired in 1984, a year after Cosell retired.

Fred Gaudelli, a longtime producer of Monday Night Football, said Meredith's approach was about having fun.

"Don played that perfect foil to Cosell," Gaudelli said. "He was the first guy to bring irreverence to the booth. He didn't demean the broadcast, but he didn't make it church, he didn't take the game as gospel. He brought a fun aspect to the thing. Frank Gifford kind of did it a serious way, and Don let it be known that it didn't have to be one prototype."

Gifford, who was a football star first with the New York Giants, said in a statement released by the Giants:

"Together with Howard Cosell, we helped changed Monday night television into Monday Night Football. Don would occasionally try his hand as an actor, but it wasn't long before he realized that for millions of football fans, he would always be the one who topped Howard Cosell with one-liners.

"But his trademark signature was when a team had a game locked up," Gifford said, when Meredith would sing "Turn out the lights, the party's over," the first line of a hit by Willie Nelson, who reportedly had been a "singin' and sippin' " buddy.

Sometimes Meredith's unadulterated commentary got him in trouble. He once referred to President Richard Nixon on the air as "Tricky Dick." He was equally uninhibited about making fun of himself, suggesting one night before a game in Denver that he was "a mile high."

Another famous moment occurred in 1972 at the Houston Astrodome. The Oakland Raiders were in the process of beating the Houston Oilers 34-0. A cameraman had a shot of a disgruntled Oilers fan, who then made an obscene gesture.

Said Meredith: "He thinks they're No. 1 in the nation."

Gaudelli said that in 2005, when the Monday Night Football franchise was leaving ABC, he tried to get Meredith to go on the final broadcast.

"Actually, twice I tried to coax him on," Gaudelli said. "Once when we celebrated our 500th game and then for the last one on ABC. He was very gracious but both times he said, 'Fred, you know, I had my time. It's somebody else's time.'

"For the last game, I finally told him people would love to see him and we couldn't do that last broadcast without having something from him.

"He said he'd really rather not do it, but he did let us come to Santa Fe. We rented out a high-school gym, put up a set and he sang 'Turn out the lights' one more time. When you think of the seminal figures of Monday Night Football, he's at the top."

Besides his 12 years of appearing on Monday Night Football, Meredith also tried his hand at acting. He appeared in Police Story and other TV series and was well-known as a spokesman for Lipton teas.

A private graveside service is planned in Texas.