Meyer passes Knight in NCAA wins

ABERDEEN, S.D. – Four months after a car accident nearly killed Don Meyer, the Northern State coach passed Bob Knight as the NCAA’s winningest men’s basketball coach.

Northern State’s 82-62 win over Mary on Saturday night gave Meyer his 903rd victory.

“There’s no clinician I’d rather listen to than Bobby Knight,” Meyer said. “He’s taught us a lot.”

Always the teacher himself, Meyer still was instructing his team after the historic victory.

“We’ve got a ways to go,” said Meyer, who made note in the postgame huddle of his team’s defensive lapses on some 3-point shots. “How selfish it would be if I was celebrating all this stuff and they were trying to be a better team.”

He compiled his 903 wins at three universities in a career that began in 1972 and nearly ended last September in a car accident that sent him to the hospital for 55 days, forced doctors to amputate his lower left leg and led to the discovery of a slow-growing cancer.

A few minutes after the game, Meyer, 64, finally smiled, letting the moment sink in.

“I haven’t had this much fun since Carmen and I were married,” he said.

Coaching from the sidelines in a wheelchair, the Wayne, Neb., native moved past Knight, whom he credited for his love of coaching. The career victory leader in men’s coaching is Harry Statham of McKendree University, an NAIA school. He has won 979 games in 43 seasons.