Former DePaul men's basketball coach Joey Meyer died Friday at age 74. According to the school, he was surrounded by his family.
No name could ever say “DePaul Basketball” more than Meyer. Joey was head coach of the Blue Demons from 1984 to 1997, leading them to seven NCAA Tournaments and 231 victories. Only his father, Ray, won more games at school.
Meyer played for his father at DePaul and finished his career as the school's fourth-leading scorer before serving as an assistant coach on his staff for 11 seasons. Meyer even starred in his high school career at DePaul Academy, winning both the 1967 Catholic League championship and the city championship.
The 1986-87 Blue Demons, Meyer's best team, went 28-3 and reached the Sweet 16. Meyer won at least one national coach of the year award that season.
In the 1991-92 season, which ended with Meyer's final trip to the Big Dance, the Blue Demons defeated Final Four seed Cincinnati twice in Great Midwest Conference play to finish first in the league. Then-Bearcats coach Bob Huggins told former Sun-Times reporter Toni Ginnetti, who was covering DePaul at the time, that Meyer was an even better coach than his legendary father.
In fact, Huggins wasn't the only major coach to tell Ginnetti that. Former Kansas coach Roy Williams also did. Both men claimed that the younger Meyer never received the respect he deserved.
“How do you follow a legend?” said Ginnetti. “And especially when the legend is your father?”
Bulls radio host Chuck Swirsky called DePaul games during Meyer's tenure as coach on WGN. Swirsky also hosted Meyers Trainer's show. They were close friends and remained so, a relationship that spanned 40 years.
“He was a wonderful person,” Swirsky said. “He was a man of integrity and character who never sought the spotlight.”
DePaul basketball was a big deal in the city when Meyer took over the reins from his father, who had coached the team for 42 seasons and won 724 games. The Blue Demons were giants for most of Ray's final decade carrying the whistle. If they slipped at all under Joey, he heard about it. And for much of his last five seasons — a stretch without an NCAA Tournament berth — he took a lot of heat. He was released when the 1997 season ended, the end of an era.
In later years, Meyer was a head coach in the NBA Developmental League and a regional scout for the Clippers. He also served as a radio analyst for Northwestern Games for several years.