Xavier University Athletics
Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1986
Joe Meyer enjoyed tremendous success as a football coach (1920-35), basketball coach (1920-33)Â and athletic director for Xavier back in the 1920's and 1930's.
Meyer coached Xavier football to more victories and had the highest lifetime winning percentage in the history of Xavier football. He compiled a lifetime record of 84-43-7 and a winning percentage of 62.7% while at the helm from 1920-35.
Meyer had many great years as the Musketeer football coach. In his first three years at Xavier, XU finished 7-1, 6-2, and 7-2. The Musketeers knocked off Dayton each of those years and beat the powerful Haskell Indians, 21-7, in Meyer's first year.
His next string of great years came from 1926-28, where the Musketeers finished 9-1, 8-1-1, and 6-3. The 1926-27 years were very good to Xavier, as the Musketeers romped over almost everyone they played. Xavier set the school record in 1927 for the most points in a game, with a 132-0 thrashing of Lee College. The year before, they knocked off Toledo 69-6. Meyer finished at Xavier in the same way he had entered -- as a winner, as the Musketeers went 6-2-1 and 6-3 in his last two seasons as head coach.
Meyer's success found its way to the basketball court, also. Meyer, who coached more seasons (13) than any basketball coach in XU history, won 64.6% (95-52) of his 147Â games. Meyer's win percentage ranks sixth all-time among all XU basketball coaches.
Xavier dominated rival Dayton, 9-2, during Meyer's reign and won the first game ever against crosstown rival Cincinnati, 29-25 in the 1927-28 season. The XU/UC clash was the dedication game for XU's Schmidt Fieldhouse.
The developments made in the athletic department during Meyer's term as athletic director are staggering. After taking over as Athletic Director in 1920, he began plans for erecting a football stadium. In 1921 he oversaw the dedication of Corcoran Field as XU played an intersectional game with Creighton.
In 1926 plans were made to build a new fieldhouse. Walter Schmidt later announced his intended donation to be put towards building the new fieldhouse. In 1927 the Walter Schmidt Memorial Fieldhouse was dedicated.
In 1928 a drive for a new stadium began. Golf was added as an intercollegiate sport at Xavier.
During his time as coach and athletic director, Xavier athletics grew by leaps and bounds, enjoying success after success. During those years, Meyer helped shape the careers of such Xavier standouts and XU Hall of Famers as Joe Kelly, Tom Clines, Dan Tehan, Paul "Chip" Cain, John "Socko" Wiethe, and Charles Barrett.
It was written in the Xavier Yearbook that "Meyer has enjoyed success in bringing out the best in every man, and never has there been a man who has played under the 'Chief' who has not profited by it...he is gifted with that indefinable dexterity which enables him to develop eager but untrained candidates into athletes, and promising men into heroes...it would be difficult to find a more able coach and finer personality than Joseph A. Meyer."
