Big D After JFK's Assassination

The Cowboys had to repair Dallas' image after the JFK assassination. So writes Michael Granberry in the Dallas Morning News:

On Saturday, Nov. 23, 1963, hours after President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dealey Plaza, the Dallas Cowboys reported to Love Field for a trip to Cleveland.

The players were shocked at having to go. During the flight, they stared out the window at the whirring propellers of their Douglas DC-7, courting a sense of dread over what might await them on the shores of Lake Erie.

It was bothersome to many that Don Meredith, the team’s happy-go-lucky quarterback, was anything but “Dandy” Don. He sat stoically, staring out the window. Meredith’s world had gone into upheaval the day before, when, right after lunch, Friday’s pregame practice was interrupted by a trainer gone bonkers.

“He came running up, yelling, ‘Kennedy’s been shot! Kennedy’s been shot!’ And everything just kind of went crazy from there,” Meredith said in a 1982 interview with this reporter. “And,” he said, “it stayed crazy.”

[Photo Credit: Henry Barr/Diamond Images]