Mike Meyer, Honorary Bulldog Award: 2025 Release
Mike Meyer may not have been born into the Bulldog Family, but he certainly was adopted into it, literally. Adoptive parents Delbert and Ann met at Concordia in the 1950s and played an influential role in Meyer developing an affinity for all things Concordia Bulldogs. Though not an alum, Meyer is a staple of the Concordia University, Nebraska community and a fixture at Bulldog athletics events.
For Bulldog fans, if you haven’t seen him, you’ve surely heard him. Meyer has lent his golden voice in various roles as an emcee, PA announcer and play-by-play broadcaster (in addition to filming coach’s tape for football) at Concordia functions and athletic contests. As a youngster, Meyer displayed the talent for such responsibilities. He just needed to build the courage.
“Sometimes your parents know better,” says Meyer of his career path. “I do remember as a kid playing with tinkertoys. I made a tinkertoy tower for a TV camera with a cardboard box and a toilet paper tube as a lens and pretended to be a sports announcer. My dad once said, ‘You’d be a good sports announcer.’ As a high school kid, the shyness aspect of my life convinced me there was no way I was going to do that.”
Meyer found the right path for him, led by God’s guiding hand. That journey began in Seattle as a child before his parents moved the family to Nebraska as Mike was heading into fourth grade. Meyer then spent his formative years in York, where he grew increasingly fond of Concordia, a place with deep family ties. After graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1979, Meyer made a permanent move to Seward. His involvement with Concordia Athletics ramped up in 1996 when he agreed to film football games for Coach Courtney Meyer. The relationships have thickened in the years since then.
In appreciation of his service and love for the institution, Concordia University honored Meyer with the alumni office’s Lifetime Service Award in 2011 and then with the Honorary Bulldog Alumni Award in 2025. Meyer has also served as a member of the Concordia Athletics Hall of Fame Committee and emceed the Concordia Football Reunion that took place in 2016. In addition, Meyer has called softball play-by-play since the early 2000s and has served as PA announcer for home basketball for nearly 20 years.
Along the way, Meyer has enjoyed a front row seat for some of the most memorable Concordia Athletics moments of the 21st century. The moments Meyer quickly recalls include the 2001 GPAC championship football season, the unforgettable Amber Topil walk-off home run in the 2014 GPAC softball tournament, the heart stopping GPAC women’s basketball championship game of 2017 and the viral Internet play involving the jaw-dropping Carter Kent-to-Tristan Smith full-court alley-oop layup of 2022.
Meyer never scripts what he’s going to say in those dramatic instances, but when the mood hits, he just might exclaim, “Holy Moly!” Those words rolled off the tongue on May 2, 2014, when the Seward native Topil launched a walk-off, two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth in a 10-8 GPAC tournament win over Midland. The victory clinched the softball program’s first ever trip to the national tournament. (Listen to it HERE!). Meyer was there on site in Hastings to call the action for an Internet audio broadcast.
“That was a really cool moment when Topil hit a walk-off home run and qualified us for nationals for the first time,” Meyer said. “I remember saying, ‘The Bulldogs are going to nationals! The Bulldogs are going to nationals!’ A lot of people ask if I think ahead what I’m going to say. I don’t. When something happens, I just get excited and say something. I’ve been known with Seward High football games when something happens to say, ‘Holy Moly!’ That’s been a phrase I’ve used. That was a great softball moment. To knock off Midland and qualify for the tournament was pretty cool.”
As the PA announcer when the alley-oop occurred, Meyer really didn’t need to say much. Once a then freshman version of Tristan Smith laid the ball in the basket for the game winner at the buzzer on Feb. 16, 2022, Friedrich Arena burst into a frenzied mass of people rushing the court. Meyer exclaimed, “The Bulldogs win!” before allowing everyone to attempt to process what had occurred. The play even made the rounds across a series of ESPN programs.
Meyer developed a friendship with the family of Tristan Smith after years of doing PA for games played by both Tristan and his older brother Gage. Those relationships are really what it’s all about. Meyer also enjoys friendly discussions with officials and opposing coaches from his spot at the scorer’s table. In a classic GPAC tournament title clash with Dakota Wesleyan in 2017, the Bulldogs survived by a 78-77 score in overtime after a DWU tip at the buzzer rolled off the rim. Meyer told DWU Head Coach Jason Christensen, “Great game, Coach.” Christensen responded by saying, “That was fun,” despite the result going in Concordia’s favor. (Drew Olson’s Bulldogs defeated DWU in three straight GPAC tournament finals from 2017 through 2019).
As Meyer recalls, his first actual on-air broadcast of a Concordia sporting event occurred in the latter part of the 1990s when the men’s basketball program qualified for the national tournament in Nampa, Idaho. Meyer rode 17 hours there and 17 hours back for a radio broadcast (for a station out of Columbus, Neb.). Unfortunately, the Bulldogs, then led by Grant Schmidt, lost in the first round and were eliminated.
Not long after, Frank Greene, a radio veteran himself, became head coach of the softball program (a position he held from 2001-08 and from 2011-13). Greene had an idea that was innovative for small schools in the early 2000s: Internet audio broadcasts. Greene had one person in mind to become the voice of Concordia Softball: Mike Meyer. Greene and Meyer first met through their careers in radio.
Says Greene, “I couldn’t hardly wait to get him to be our broadcaster because he’s top drawer. God gave him a voice, and he uses it. When I asked him to do softball, he was thrilled to do it.”
When Meyer called the first Concordia softball game ever broadcast, he did so using a flip phone connected to a Bluetooth earpiece. In the absence of a press box at the Plum Creek Park diamond, Meyer simply backed up his pickup truck near the backstop and away he went. In the present day, Meyer describes the action in collaboration with the video stream. Meyer even called games in 2025 at the first NAIA Opening Round ever hosted by the Concordia baseball program.
Over the years, Meyer grew closer to Greene and to the softball players and parents. Greene welcomed Meyer to all the games that fit his schedule, even the ones that occurred in faraway places over spring break. Meyer was a good sport on those occasions when he became the butt of the joke, like on a GPAC tournament road trip when his whole mouth and lips turned blue after eating a slushy from a Pump & Pantry gas station. It was all in good fun. The players appreciated his support.
Says Meyer in explaining how the broadcasts started, “I sat in my driver’s seat with stats and a scorebook and called the game that way – sitting in my truck with a cell phone and an earpiece. That’s how it started. I was still working, but I did all the home games and as many away games as I could. I got to go to spring break trips with the team. That always used to get a chuckle when I told people who was going – me, the coach and 25 college girls. We would go to California or Arizona or Florida. They treated me as part of the team. I got to know so many parents. That is extremely rewarding.”
Of Meyer’s on-air work, Greene stated, “He’s good at it. He backed me up whenever I had some broadcasts for the radio station if I got sick or whatever. He’s got a great voice, and you can tell he’s done it a long time. He’s a heck of a guy. He’s still great at what he does. He’s so personable.”
As he approaches the age of 70, Meyer can’t see himself giving it up – the games, the Bulldog Golf Classic, the Concordia camaraderie or the relationships. When Coach Courtney Meyer’s Bulldogs won the 2001 GPAC title, Mike Meyer received a championship ring just like the coaches and players. It stands today as a symbol greater than the accomplishment itself.
Says Meyer, “I have lifelong friends just from being the video guy for some of those teams. I see a lot of those guys come back from out of state for the Bulldog Golf Classic or other functions. There’s always hugs and handshakes.”
Added Meyer, “My wife (Rhonda) asks me periodically, ‘How long are you going to keep doing ballgames?’ I say, ‘I don’t know. Until I don’t like it anymore, I guess.’ I don’t see that happening.”
Once upon a time, Mike Meyer wanted to attend Concordia, but he just couldn’t see himself as a teacher, a vocation the institution specialized in (and continues to emphasize along with a wealth of other majors). He earned a degree in Broadcast Journalism from Nebraska and then worked for KSRD/KZKX Radio in Seward – until the station let him go upon moving to Lincoln in 1984. Meyer landed on his feet and spent 31 years working for the Nebraska State Patrol as a forensic video and audio analyst. All the while, he broadcasted Seward High School football games, something he’s done continuously since 1980. In a twist, Meyer dipped his toes into teaching in his retirement as a teacher’s aide at St. John Lutheran School.
The family members who have attended Concordia include Meyer’s grandfather, parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, a sister-in-law, and daughter-in-law. (His father Del excelled on the basketball court and stood at 6-foot-7). It’s enough to make Mike an ‘honorary Bulldog’ – and then some.
His excellent service has earned him recognition, even though that’s not why he does it. Says Meyer, “I'm just trying to use my God-given gifts and talents to the best of my ability and bring glory to God through anything I do.
“At this point in my life, I feel like I’m part of the Concordia Family. It’s been a blessing. God found a way to get me to Concordia, even though I didn’t go to school here. I’m a Bulldog. It’s been really meaningful to me. It’s a special place. I’ve lived close enough to see it through the students, the athletes and music – all that stuff. I’ve seen what Concordia does for people. I love Concordia. It’s an honor. I’m really blessed.”