Don Meyer nearly died in a car accident four months ago. His left leg was amputated just below the knee, his spleen and part of his lower intestine were removed, his diaphragm was re-attached to the bone, his broken ribs were treated and along the way, it was discovered he had cancer.
The day after he was released following 55 days in the hospital, Meyer arrived at his office at 4:45 a.m., ready to resume coaching Northern State. He has to coach from a wheelchair now, but that does not prevent him from remaining the tough, demanding coach he had been at Hamline and Lipscomb and now at Northern State in Aberdeen, S.D.
And it did not prevent him from becoming the NCAA leader in career coaching victories when Northern State, a Division II team, blew out Mary 82-62 on Saturday to give Meyer his 903rd victory, passing Bob Knight.
Meyer now calls the accident a blessing, because it allowed doctors to discover the slow-growing cancer. It did not seem like a blessing in September, when the car he was driving while leading his team to its annual preseason retreat rammed head-on into a truck carrying 90,000 pounds of grain.
Meyer underwent eight surgeries, but he didn't doubt that he would return to coach. There are no indications Meyer, 64, is ready to retire, but he will have to coach awhile to catch the leader in career victories at any four-year college.
That would be Harry Statham, the coach at McKendree University, an NAIA Division I school in Lebanon, Ill. Statham has 979 wins, putting him within reach of 1,000. To put 1,000 wins in perspective, consider that it would require 50 20-win seasons.
Statham has no records to break. He has been No. 1 ever since he passed Dean Smith in 2004, although few would mention those two in the same breath.
North Carolina's arena, named after Smith, holds 21,750 people, and tickets for the Tar Heels' home game against Duke are going for as much as $6,500 apiece on StubHub.
McKendree's home court is named for Statham, but it seats only 1,500, and there is no trouble getting a ticket -- $5 for a reserved seat, $3 for general admission -- because only 478 fans came for one game this season.
TOP OF THE LIST
Most victories by active college basketball head coaches (through Monday):
1. Harry Statham, McKendree (NAIA Division I)979
2. Don Meyer, Northern State (NCAA Division II)903
3. Herb Magee, Philadelphia U. (NCAA Division II)864
4. Danny Miles, Oregon Tech (NAIA Division II)864
5. Mike Krzyzewski, Duke (NCAA Division I)817
6. Jim Calhoun, Connecticut (NCAA Division I)788
7. Jim Boeheim, Syracuse (NCAA Division I)787
8. Larry Holley, William Jewell (NAIA Division II)763
9. Dave Holmquist, Biola (NAIA Division I)748
10. Glenn Robinson, Franklin & Marshall (NCAA Division II)741
(E-mail Jake Curtis at jcurtis@sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit the San Francisco Chronicle
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