Colleges

Ray Meyer, former DePaul coach, dies

By wire services
Published March 18, 2006

CHICAGO - Ray Meyer, who built DePaul into a national basketball power during a 42-year span, coaching a generation of players stretching from George Mikan to Mark Aguirre, died Friday at age 92.

Mr. Meyer twice took the Blue Demons to the NCAA Final Four, helped develop Mikan - who would eventually become basketball's first dominating big man - and coached DePaul to the 1945 NIT title.

His death was confirmed by athletic director Jean Lenti Ponsetto. The school said his family was with him when he died at an assisted living facility. Additional details were not immediately available.

Mr. Meyer died just as the NCAA tournament was getting under way in cities around the country - an event his teams competed in 13 times.

"He was a coach's coach, he was a man's man," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who grew up in Chicago. "He was the face of college basketball in Chicago. When you think of basketball in that city, you think of Ray Meyer."

Said UCLA's Ben Howland: "He had a great, long life."

Mr. Meyer's teams posted 37 winning seasons and had 20-win campaigns 12 times. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979.

He retired in 1984 and his son, Joey, took over, lasting 13 years until he was forced to resign in April 1997 after a 3-23 season. Joey Meyer had played and been an assistant under his father.

Mr. Meyer was a standout player at Notre Dame before beginning his coaching career. His wife died in 1988.

In addition to Joey Meyer, survivors include two other sons and two daughters.

IOWA STATE FIRINGS: Iowa State fired basketball coach Wayne Morgan and his staff in the wake of a reported recruiting scam. ISU Athletics Director Jamie Pollard said during a news conference that he met Thursday evening with school president Gregory Geoffroy and with Morgan. "We informed him that we were making a change in the leadership of our men's basketball program, effective immediately," Pollard said. He said the firing came after poor performance from the program, but that there were other reasons. "The fact that we didn't make the NCAA tournament or the NIT contributed to this decision, but I want to emphasize it clearly is not the only reason for making this decision," he said. Morgan's firing came two days after a report surfaced that a number of college basketball programs may have steered more than $100,000 to a California business run by a junior college coach. Morgan, 55, has a career record of 146-123 in nine seasons as a college coach. He spent six seasons as the head coach at Long Beach State and 12 seasons as an assistant at Syracuse.

NOT THE LEAST: The rash of Big East jokes ended during the the first round of the NCAA tournament. The conference that set a record with eight schools in the field of 65 had a Thursday to forget with Seton Hall, Marquette and Syracuse all losing. The sarcastic comments were flowing freely about the 16-team league most of the country loves to hate. "Big Least" was one, while others suggested the word "Big" be taken away from the conference for a year's probation. But the three losses were matched when Georgetown, Villanova and West Virginia all won.

[Last modified March 18, 2006, 02:30:29]