Coach Don Meyer’s legacy is the way he spent his life.
“I think that’s the reason why that we’re put here on the Earth is to try to help folks and to show that servant leadership and show Christ, and that was everything that Coach [Meyer] was about,” said one of his former players and coaches, Freed-Hardeman head coach Jason Shelton.
Meyer, long-time coach of the Bisons and a college basketball icon, died today at age 69.
Those who learned from and admired Coach Meyer spent time reflecting on how his life, not just his coaching, affected them.
Meyer ends a long battle with cancer, stemming from a 2008 diagnosis that came after a serious car accident that claimed one of his legs.
He was at home in Aberdeen, South Dakota, receiving hospice care at the time of his passing.
A celebration of life for Meyer will be held in Allen Arena honoring Meyer’s life at 2 p.m. on June 1. A similar service will be held in South Dakota on Saturday at Northern State University.
At an Athlete Leadership Chapel held in October 2012, Meyer spoke to a crowd of Bisons and Lady Bisons about a myriad of important subjects – character being one of them.
“Character is really important,” Meyer said during his lesson. “Character is important in everything you do.”
Meyer lived a life of iridescent character – the kind of character that Jesus taught people to have. The kind of character that showed on the court, in the locker room, at practice and at basketball camps. The kind of character that made him a beloved coach, mentor and friend.
Meyer has a storied career in the world of college basketball. He’s widely considered to be one of the best to ever pick up the clipboard and whistle.
Meyer began his career with Hamline University before making his way to Nashville to lead Lipscomb’s program. He became the head coach of the Lipscomb Bisons in 1975 and led the program through its most successful years to date.
For 24 years, Meyer’s Bisons were perennial contenders at the NAIA level. Meyer’s 1985-1986 Bisons squad won the NAIA National Championship.
Shelton is a branch from the Meyer tree of coaching. He spent time both as a player and coach under Meyer.
He said that Meyer’s role as a mentor and teacher was very impactful.
“He was the whole reason why I would be involved in coaching, and probably a lot of other guys, just the simple fact that we want to try to do for kids what Coach [Meyer] did for us,” Shelton said.
With Lipscomb, Meyer had the record of 665-179.
Rick Byrd started his career with Belmont coaching against Meyer. With Meyer hosting a powerhouse program and Byrd inheriting a fixer-upper, the Belmont coach credits playing against the Meyer-led Bisons as a major part of the Bruins’ success.
“I think I learned an awful lot competing against Don,” Byrd said. “I think I became a much better coach.
“When you arrive at a job and you’re competing against a team that just won the [NAIA] national championship, which is when I got to Belmont, the year they won, you’re measured against the best in the country, and because they were so good and he was such a good coach, it raised the bar really high for our program, and without Don’s excellence and success, and Lipscomb fans probably don’t want to hear it,” Byrd said with a laugh, “but I don’t think Belmont would be nearly as good today if Lipscomb hadn’t been so good under Coach Meyer.”
Longtime Nashville sportswriter Joe Biddle, whose career features bylines with the out-of-print Nashville Banner and The Tennessean, covered Meyer during his time with Lipscomb.
“He was a unique guy,” Biddle said. “I had 31 years pretty much with Coach Meyer and Rick Byrd over at Belmont. We called it then, the beat, city college basketball because that’s what it was. It was Trevecca, they had good programs off and on. Under Don Meyer, Lipscomb was always strong, and then Belmont, once Rick got his program in gear – he had quite a rebuilding program to undertake, but then, they were very competitive.
“When those two, those three teams played each other, you could barely find a spot in the gym, and the fire marshal was the busiest guy in town when those games were being played because he often had to tell some people to go home.”
Biddle joked that he always thought that the fire marshal was just trying to find a seat himself.
People that knew Meyer would attest that he was a fan of Captain D’s, and Biddle remembered that if anyone went to lunch with Meyer, that was the restaurant of choice.
“I got to know him fairly well,” Biddle said. “If Don Meyer asked you to go out to eat, a lot of guys will say, ‘Hey, let’s go eat lunch,’ and then you’d spend the next 30 minutes trying to figure out where you want to go. It was no surprise when Don Meyer asked you if you wanted to go to lunch; there was no question where you were going. It was Captain D’s if you please, or if you didn’t please, you were still going there.”
In 1999 after a long career at Lipscomb, Meyer moved to Aberdeen, South Dakota, to take the reins of the Northern State University Wolves.
Meyer netted his 903th victory on Jan. 10, 2009, with the Wolves, putting him at the time up at the top of the chart for coaches in college basketball with the most wins. Meyer now sits sixth on the list of college basketball’s winningest coaches.
A two-time winner of the NAIA National Coach of the Year Award, Meyer retired from coaching after the 2009-2010 season.
Since then, Meyer spent a great deal of time speaking to others and spreading his immense knowledge about the world of basketball, coaching, faith and life. He ended his career with the record of 923-324.
Anyone with a career like Meyer’s is bound to leave an impact on the game, but to many, Meyer’s impact means far more than a name on an all-time list.
Biddle said he believes Meyer’s legacy can be seen in the lives that he impacted.
“His players – I think that’s his legacy is how many lives he impacted when he was coaching,” Biddle said. “And not only when he was coaching. We can’t forget the famous Don Meyer Basketball Camp for Kids. Now, unlike a lot of college head coaches that have camps for kids, Don Meyer was very, very, very hands-on.
“Not only did he pick his staff to work the camp and who worked it, he was very involved in teaching basketball in its purest form to the kids that paid a lot of money to come to his camp, and I think when you add all of those kids up and add those to the ones that he coached forever, I mean, that’s a lot of people. That’s a lot of impacting lives, and certainly he did it, and did it in a positive way.”
Biddle spoke about Meyer’s desire to not only impact his players on the court.
“He taught people not only basketball,” Biddle said. “He taught them how to be organized, how to set goals, how to keep a notebook. Every year, every player, freshman, every class got a brand new notebook. He wanted you to keep thoughts that you had during the day, goals that you wanted to reach and write them down, and he thought it was important for you to write them down.
“So, he thought that was important to do, and he would check those notebooks, and he would read them himself and learn more about the people he was coaching.
“I think the players to A-to-Z will tell you that that really helped them.
“He was a teacher,” Biddle said. “He was a teacher first and foremost, and a very good coach, and the two go hand in hand, or at least they did with Don Meyer.”
To Byrd, Meyer is the finest coach to ever influence others of the profession in Tennessee.
“At least in my opinion, Don Meyer had more to do with – had more influence on coaches in the state of Tennessee than any coach that’s ever coached in Tennessee,” Byrd said.
Byrd said that the impact goes past Meyer’s reputation for being a good coach with good teams. To Byrd, he was a coach’s coach.
“All of his instructional videos, all of his camps, clinics, the number of appearances he made outside the state of Tennessee, was good for all of us in college basketball in Tennessee because he represented us so well. He loved the game. He loved the process of making players better, making teams better. So, his impact was huge in this area.”
Shelton says he believes that Meyer’s influence stretches globally.
“I spent six years out west in Utah and Colorado, and coming in contact with folks out there, and the only reason why I have a job anywhere I ever was was because of Coach Meyer,” Shelton said. “People hired me wanting to try to learn something that I might’ve learned from him everywhere that I’ve ever been.”
Shelton said that it was Meyer’s willingness to share in the game with other coaches that gives him a global level of recognition in the basketball community.
The Lions coach was awarded the 2014 Don Meyer NAIA Coach of the Year honor in April.
At Lipscomb, Meyer was inducted into the Lipscomb University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2011, the court in Allen Arena was named “Don Meyer Court” in the coach’s honor.
The annual Don Meyer Evening of Excellence is also held in his namesake, with the event so far hosting such guests as Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, MLB Hall of Famer Ernie Banks and Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens (then with the Butler Bulldogs).
Krzyzewski was the guest speaker at of the third annual Don Meyer Evening of Excellence in 2011. During his address, the legendary coach spoke on why he was quick to accept the invitation.
“When I was invited to be the third speaker at the Evening of Excellence, I jumped at the opportunity because [Meyer] led the life of excellence,” Krzyzewski said at the event.
Banks, who headlined the event this past April, also shares in his admiration for Meyer.
““This man is brilliant,” Banks said at the event. “He knows so much about coaching.
“He’s really an amazing man.”
Meyer attended and spoke at April’s Evening of Excellence.
In 2009, ESPN awarded Meyer with the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at its ESPYs ceremony. The award is named after Coach Jim Valvano, who died of cancer in 1993.
In 2010, Meyer was given the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame “John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award” and John Wooden Keys to Life Award.
In 2012, Meyer won the Naismith Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Basketball Award.”
Meyer is survived by a wife, Carmen, three children, Brooke, Brittney and Jerry, and eight grandchildren.
To Biddle, Meyer will be remembered for not only his legacy on the court, but for his legacy off the court, with the players that he coached.
“He will be remembered by myself as a guy that cared about people, as a guy that cared about the job he was doing – and really the record that he formed through the years – but I think, more than anything, it was the personal relationship that he had with his players that he should be remembered for.”