With coaches hopping from job to job for multi-millions, it is refreshing to see some in the profession staying put, knowing where they want to be and setting down roots. Courtney Meyer, the Dean of GPAC coaches, just completed his 24^th season as a college football head coach; the last 18 at Concordia in Seward, Nebraska. He has made the top Bulldog position more important than big dollar contracts, booster glad-handing or even wins and losses. He has determinedly instilled leadership and character into the more than 600 student athletes that have played for him. However, since wins and losses count for at least a little; he remains today the only GPAC coach to have defeated Sioux Falls twice since the league’s inception in the fall of 2000 and the only coach to lead Concordia to the NAIA‘s Football Championship Series, reaching the quarterfinals in 2001. The interesting part of the story is the journey he has taken to become Concordia‘s leader in all-time wins.

He came to Seward, Nebraska in the fall of 1963 as a junior transfer to play football and baseball. He did both so well that he was named “Outstanding Senior” in 1965. His coaching influences those fall gridiron seasons for the Bulldogs? Concordia Head Coach Ron Harms who went on to lead the highly successful Texas A&I football program for 22 years, (now Texas A&M at Kingsville) and win an NAIA D-I title in 1979.  Jim Wacker was the Defensive Coordinator, later winning two NAIA D-II titles at Texas Lutheran in the mid-seventies. Both men are in the Concordia Athletic Hall of Fame.

Coach Meyer’s trek began in the high school ranks; as an assistant at Martin Luther in Maspeth, N.Y. and Long Island Lutheran in Long Island, N.Y., then as head coach at Mayer Lutheran High School in Mayer, Minn., where he went 35-10-1. He returned to Concordia in 1977 and served as defensive coordinator in Seward until 1984, when he took the head coaching job at Concordia University, Mequon, WI. He produced a 35-19 mark in six seasons, winning the Illinois-Badger crown several years, though never making the NAIA post-season as the league had too few NAIA members to qualify. His final two Falcon teams both went 8-1 with undefeated conference records, only to set at home for the post-season.

Arriving back in Nebraska in 1990, Coach Meyer found the going much more difficult with a program that had won only one conference crown in the past 19 falls. If the Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference was not tough enough, two years later they added perennial NAIA power Northwestern, Iowa to make it the Nebraska Iowa Athletic Conference. This made the NIAC one of the more prestigious D-II conferences in the NAIA. In fact, from 1987 through 1997 the league sent every team to the NAIA football Championship Series; except Concordia. In fact, all the other league schools but Dana and Nebraska Wesleyan went at least twice with Northwestern and Doane both making the semifinals.

In 1997 Concordia President Orville Walz decided to bring in a consultant to review the viability of their football program.  The college had made a commitment earlier in the building of an on-campus stadium; Bulldog Stadium.  And though its one of the better facilities in the league, facilities aren't always a difference-maker to recruits.  Dr. Ted Kessinger, former football coach at Bethany, KS for 28 seasons, was brought in for several days for a thorough exam of the Concordia situation. His final recommendations were equivalent to an ultimatum; either make certain changes or remain mired in the second division of the NIAC. Kessinger’s report boiled down to two main items to focus on. First, Concordia needed to add more money to their aid/scholarship packages for recruits. Secondly, it needed to give Coach Meyer additional help with another full-time assistant coach, who would help directly in recruiting.  Fortunately for CU fans, the report was approved and produced results.