Product Code Database
Ronald Shaw Meyer (February 17, 1941 – December 5, 2017) was an American college and professional football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) from 1973 to 1975 and Southern Methodist University (SMU) from 1976 to 1981, and as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL), with the New England Patriots from 1982 to 1984 and the Indianapolis Colts from 1986 to 1991.
At Westerville High School, Ron played football, basketball, and baseball, and he was class president each year. Shortly after graduation, Meyer married Carolyn, his high school's homecoming queen, who was pregnant and due in February of the following year.
Meyer sought to go to Ohio State due to their success in football in the 50s, though it became clear that Ohio State would not accept him. George Steinbrenner, a onetime graduate assistant on the Purdue Boilermakers football team, led Meyer to believe that he could arrange a scholarship for Meyer. When Meyer visited Purdue's football office, however, Steinbrenner was not present and nobody else knew of the supposed scholarship. Meyer and his mother persisted, and Coach Jack Mollenkopf eventually relented, letting Meyer onto the football team and giving him a scholarship.
While at SMU, Meyer was noted for his unusual success in recruitment for a small private university; he was able to recruit top-rated high school recruits such as Eric Dickerson and Craig James. Unlike other Texas coaches at the time, Meyer recruited players regardless of race, creating a connection between SMU and inner-city and predominantly Black Texas schools. This decision was usually framed as charity or a social justice initiative, but internally, it was couched as an investment. Meyer was also implicated in the creation of a slush fund used to recruit new players through monthly payments or paying for moving expenses, ultimately resulting in the SMU football scandal.
Meyer's coaching style caused friction between him and players. Meyer required offensive players to board a separate bus from defensive players, forbade loud music in the locker room, and players could not leave their hotel the night before a game. Unlike his predecessor Ron Erhardt, Meyer was far stricter on punctuality. Meyer and Stanley Morgan attributed the conflict to Meyer's retaining of a college football coaching style. In Meyer's first season, John Hannah requested to be traded and briefly retired, returning the next season. In retrospect, Don Hasselbeck said that the players were too hard on Meyer during his first season.
However, complaints about Meyer continued. By the 1984 season, the players despised Meyer, though Meyer was apparently unaware of this. Hannah, Smith and Patriots GM Patrick Sullivan all questioned Meyer's skill at football. Sullivan eventually held player-only meetings so that they could air their grievances about Meyer. In October 1984, Meyer responded by firing assistant coach Rod Rust, but Sullivan replaced Meyer with Raymond Berry (who rehired Rust) the next day, which was met with celebration among the players.
After initially agreeing to accept the open head coach position at his collegiate alma mater, Purdue, Meyer left Athletic Associates and accepted the Indianapolis Colts head coach position, replacing Rod Dowhower. When he accepted the job late in the 1986 season, the Colts were 0–13 at the time. Meyer promptly led the Colts to 3 straight victories to finish 3–13. A year later, he won the AFC East title with the Colts. It was the franchise's first winning season and playoff appearance since 1977, when the team was still in Baltimore. Meyer once again won the AFC Coach of the Year. He was helped in large part by being reunited with his former college standout, Eric Dickerson, who was acquired by the Colts in a three-team, 10-player trade involving the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills.
Meyer's tenure crested at that point. He was unable to get another postseason berth in Indianapolis, slipping by one game in each of the next three seasons, from 9–7 in 1988, to 8–8 in 1989 and 7–9 in 1990, despite the selection of quarterback Jeff George with the first overall pick in the 1990 draft. He traded up in the draft to obtain George, which included sending star players, receiver Andre Rison, lineman Chris Hinton, and the Colts' first-round pick in 1991 to the Atlanta Falcons. In 1991, when the Colts started off 0–5, he was fired and replaced with Rick Venturi. GM Jim Irsay criticized Meyer for his draft picks and decision making.
In 1994, Meyer returned to coaching again. This time Meyer became the head coach of the Canadian Football League's Las Vegas Posse franchise. The heat was so extreme that Meyer allowed coaches to go shirtless and barefoot during practice. Poor attendance prompted the firing of the Posse's CEO Nick Mileti, after which Meyer quipped "This is the first time the owner was fired before I was." The Posse finished the season 5–13, and, despite attempts to move the team to San Antonio or Jackson, Mississippi, the team folded. Florida businessman Bruce Frey planned to buy the team and rebrand it to the Miami Manatees, retaining Meyer as coach, but Frey pulled out after an exhibition game demonstrated little local interest.
Meyer returned to his position at CNN, also appearing on the CNN/SI network. He was also an NFL analyst for the show The Score on the NFL on the Canadian sports channel The Score.
In 2001, Meyer was the coach of the XFL's Chicago Enforcers franchise, which he intended to use as a stepping stone to return to the NFL. The team would finish 5–5 and would lose to the eventual champion, the Los Angeles Xtreme, in the league semifinals. After the season, the XFL folded.
Meyer died on December 5, 2017, at age 76 from an aortic aneurysm while playing golf with friends in Lakeway, Texas.
|
|
