DALLAS — Don Meredith was the happiest, most fun-loving guy wherever he went, whether crooning country tunes in the huddle as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys or jawing with Howard Cosell in the broadcast booth as analyst on the groundbreaking “Monday Night Football.”

His irreverent personality made him one of the most beloved figures in sports and entertainment in the 1970s and 1980s, helping turn the Cowboys and “Monday Night Football” into national sensations.

“Dandy Don” died Sunday after suffering a brain hemorrhage and lapsing into a coma in Santa Fe, N.M., where he lived out of the limelight with his wife, Susan, for the last 25 years. He was 72.

A folksy foil to Cosell’s tell-it-like-it-is pomposity, Meredith was at his best with unscripted one-liners — often aimed at his broadcast partners. His trademark, though, came when one team had the game locked up. Meredith would warble, “Turn out the lights, the party’s over” — from a song by his pal Willie Nelson.

Meredith played for the Cowboys from 1960-68, taking them from winless expansion team to the brink of a championship. He was only 31 when he retired before training camp in 1969, and a year later wound up alongside Cosell in the broadcast booth for the oddity of a prime-time, weeknight NFL game.

The league pitched the idea to ABC, the lowest-rated network, after CBS and NBC tried occasional games on Monday nights and didn’t think it would click. It became a hit largely because of how much viewers enjoyed the contrast of Meredith’s Texas flair and Cosell’s East Coast braggadocio.

Friends in real life, they took opposite stances to liven up broadcasts with their bickering. Meredith usually took the majority opinion, Cosell the minority. Cosell was playing a role, while Meredith was just being himself.

“Watching him on TV was like being in the huddle with Don again,” former teammate Dan Reeves said. “He just made the game fun.”

Blowouts were their playground. Folks kept watching because of them.

In a 1970 game from Dallas, the Cowboys were headed to a 38-0 loss to St. Louis when fans chanted, “We Want Meredith!” Said Meredith, “No way you’re getting me down there.”

The Houston Oilers were on their way to a 34-0 loss to the Oakland Raiders in 1972 when a camera zoomed in on a disgruntled fan at the Astrodome. He made a one-finger salute and Meredith quipped, “He thinks they’re No. 1.”

Meredith was the life of the party in the “Monday Night” booth from 1970 through 1984, except for a three-year stint playing a detective on NBC’s “Police Story.” He spent 11 of those years teamed with another former star player, Frank Gifford, a friend before they became broadcast partners.

“To say that Don was an instant success would be a gross understatement,” Gifford said in a statement. “For millions of football fans, he would always be the one who topped Howard Cosell with one-liners or a simple ‘Come on, Howard.’ ”

Meredith also appeared in more than a dozen made-for-TV movies, specials or dramas. He once filled in for Johnny Carson on the “Tonight Show,” and was a popular pitchman for Lipton tea.

He was the inspiration for the carousing quarterback in the book and movie “North Dallas Forty,” written by Pete Gent, a former Cowboys teammate and good friend.

“He loved life, he loved people, God bless him,” former teammate Walt Garrison said. “When he walked into a room, he took it over. … You couldn’t be sad around Joe Don very long. When you left, you’d come away laughing.”