Former Northern State University coach Don Meyer is one of the nation’s most successful basketball coaches of all time.
Meyer made college basketball history in 2009, surpassing Bobby Knight as the career victory leader. For two years, from 2009-2011, Meyer held the record for most wins for a men’s college basketball coach. Meyer retired in 2010 from Northern State University with an overall win-loss record of 923-324.
During Meyer’s journey to the top of the all-time career wins, his life took an unexpected turn in September 2008 when he was involved in a life-threatening car accident while leading a caravan of players to a team retreat. The accident resulted in the loss of part of his left leg. During his time spent at the hospital, he discovered he had liver cancer. Despite that set-back and an 8-week stay in the hospital, Meyer returned to the sidelines for the duration of the 2008-09 season, leading the Wolves to their second straight appearance in the Division II national tournament in March.
After several years of battling his cancer, he passed away in May of 2014 at his home in Aberdeen, SD.
We were contacted by Northern State University soon after Don entered hospice care and were given the opportunity to design a website in honor of his contributions toward Northern State, the sport of basketball, the Aberdeen community and beyond. The process of compiling photographs of Don from over the years and learning more about his impact on others was a very heart-warming experience for us. It was an honor putting Don’s life story into one central location.
After its launch in May of 2014, the Don Meyer Tribute site received over 37,000 page views by just under 10,000 users. Nearly half of these views took place in the first week after Don’s passing.
Site Details:
This website was designed in WordPress and uses a responsive layout. We chose WordPress because it is easy for NSU to update content if needed. The responsive nature of the website allows for any screen size to view the pages in an accurate, aesthetically-pleasing layout. This tribute site includes videos, articles, photo galleries, a biography, a story wall, and a donations page. Originally, NSU proposed that we make a simple website that gave a biography of Don as well as current updates on his life and health conditions. Seeing an opportunity for creating interaction with others, we came up with the idea of developing the Story Wall page, allowing others to share their favorite quotes or stories of Don. This gave people an ability to connect with Don’s family and others who had similar, inspirational experiences. Taking an original design idea that was a very one-sided form of communication and converting it in a way that allowed for interaction among others was by far the best component we added to this site. This Story Wall portion along with the other content and design components resonated well with NSU and Don’s family. It was clear to us that they were touched by what we had created in tribute to Don. We’re truly honored to have created an impact on others by bringing people to one central location to share stories and receive information.
Creating engaging, honest stories of a company or individual is a great way to pay tribute. MCG has specialized in other projects similar to this site for Don Meyer, such as a legacy video for Stan’s Inc. of Alpena.
We hope you enjoy the website design and encourage you to spend some time viewing it and reflecting upon this great man’s life.
We have over 80 websites under management. Call us for a website quote at 605-226-3481.
“The key component to leadership is this: Your example is not the main thing in influencing others; it’s the only thing.” – Don Meyer