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Don Meyer, a Coach With 923 Victories, Is Dead at 69

Don Meyer, coaching Northern State in 2010, came back from a car accident and cancer before ending his basketball career.Credit...Doug Dreyer/Associated Press

Don Meyer, the head men’s basketball coach at Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D., was taking his players to a team retreat in September 2008 when his car collided head-on with a truck.

Meyer, who had been alone in his compact car, the procession’s lead vehicle, lost part of a leg and sustained multiple other injuries. When doctors were treating him they discovered inoperable cancer of his liver and small intestine.

He was hospitalized for two months, but he returned to coaching. While in a wheelchair at courtside in January 2009, he surpassed Bob Knight as the winningest coach in men’s college basketball history with his 903rd victory.

Meyer, who died on Sunday in Aberdeen at 69, was remembered not only for his coaching success (he is now No. 6 with 923 victories) but also for the grit he showed in his final years, and for his basketball mind. His instructional camps attracted thousands of young players, he ran many clinics for coaches, and he turned out instructional videos.

“He’s one of the most respected clinicians in the country,” Pat Summitt, who gained renown as the women’s basketball coach at Tennessee, told Sports Illustrated in December 2008, describing Meyer’s impact at his coaching clinics. “You can’t sit there and not learn and be inspired.”

The collision that nearly killed Meyer occurred about 5 p.m. when his car drifted over a center stripe, his wife, Carmen, said Sunday. She said he might have dozed off, since he had been up since 4 a.m.

Meyer remained upbeat in the face of his injuries and cancer diagnosis.

“What’s great about this is I would not have known about the cancer had I not had the wreck,” he told The Associated Press soon after the accident. “God has blessed with the one thing we all need, which is truth. I can now fight with all of my ability.”

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Don Meyer in 2010.Credit...Doug Dreyer/Associated Press

Meyer had a career record of 923-324 in 38 seasons at Hamline University of St. Paul, Lipscomb University of Nashville and Northern State.

He received the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 2010.

Donald Wayne Meyer was born Dec. 16, 1944, in Wayne, Neb., and he grew up on a farm. He played basketball and baseball at Northern Colorado University and, after working as an assistant coach in college, became the head coach at Hamline in 1972. He remained there for three seasons and compiled a record of 37-41.

He spent 24 seasons at Lipscomb, winning 665 games and losing 179, when it was a member of the small-college National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

He took the team to its national championship in 1986 and was named its coach of the year in 1989 and 1990. He had a record of 221-104 in 11 seasons at Northern State and coached his teams to five Division II national tournaments.

He retired from coaching at the end of the 2009-10 season as his health failed. But he continued to be active as a speaker, making appearances for Northern State as assistant to its president.

In addition to his wife — who announced his death, from complications of cancer — Meyer is survived by a son, Jerry; his daughters, Brooke Napier and Brittney Touchton; his mother, Edna; his sisters, Jeanie Shank and Nancy Meyer; a brother, Mike; and eight grandchildren.

Meyer, ever the teacher, not only lectured to his players on fundamentals but also required them to keep notebooks detailing what they had learned.

“You can be competitive like a mad dog in a meat house, and all you’re going to get is a bullet between the eyes eventually,” Sports Illustrated quoted him as saying. “But if you’re a mad dog that’s smart, you’re going to be O.K.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section D, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: Don Meyer, 69, a Coach With 923 Victories, Dies. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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