Joey Meyer: a profile of a Chicago legend
by Eugene YohannanWhen people come into a sports bar and share a couple of beers and laughter with their friends and start talking about basketball in the city of Chicago, one of the most frequent names that comes up is Chicago Skyliners' head coach Joey Meyer.
"When you talk about basketball in Chicago, one of the words that pops up is the name Meyer," assistant Skyliners coach Byron Irvin said. "Meyer became a household name growing up in the city of Chicago as a kid and because of that, he is the perfect image for Skyliners basketball."
Meyer is one of the most prominent figures in the history of Chicago basketball and was one of the most successful college basketball head coaches in the nation during the late 1980s and early 1990s. As the head coach for the DePaul Blue Demons for 13 seasons (1984-1997), he won nearly 60 percent of his games (231-158), including six 20-win seasons, seven NCAA Tournament appearances, three NIT bids, while only having two sub-.500 seasons.
"As a player, you look up to Coach Meyer as a father figure," said Skyliners player and former DePaul star David Booth. "On the court, he was one of the greatest motivators in the game, but off the court, he always emphasized that we were family first, players second, and that’s why I came back to play for him."
As a player under his father’s regime at DePaul from 1968 to 1971, Meyer scored 1,233 points during his career and was the co-captain during his senior season. The NBA’s Buffalo Braves, currently obsolete, drafted him in the summer of 1971.
After paying his dues as a player, Meyer became interested in coaching the game of basketball like his father. He followed his father’s footsteps and became an assistant coach the following season under his father for the next 11 years. During his coaching years, Meyer coached former NBA stars Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings, both members of DePaul’s Final Four team in the early 1980s.
"It was a dream of mine to follow my father’s footsteps and coach at a school that I called home," Meyer said. "It meant so much to me to coach DePaul because I had the opportunity to continue the great tradition of DePaul basketball."
However, things did not remain successful at DePaul towards the end of Meyer’s coaching career. After enduring back-to-back 20-loss seasons and spending nearly 30 years in Lincoln Park, DePaul officials painfully fired the name that was synonymous with DePaul basketball in the spring of 1997.
"Obviously, this was the lowest point in my professional career, and I never imagined that I could have reached that point," Meyer said. "Nonetheless, I saw it coming after three straight losing seasons. When I reflect upon it, I cherished coaching DePaul basketball, and that was one of my greatest accomplishments in life."
Now that Meyer is back on the sidelines, it is no surprise that his Skyliners, composed primarily of his former players, are among the American Basketball Association’s elite teams.
"There is nothing more fun than coaching basketball in my opinion, and my love for the game can never be measured," Meyer concluded.
PHOTO:
Coach Joey Meyer.
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