Before his highly successful coaching career took off, a young Urban Meyer was completely prepared to quit football. For a brief moment his plan was to take some other route for the woman he loved, his future wife Shelley Meyer.
“We met in college. I wanted to play as long as I could, but it was rather obvious that I wasn’t going to play for a long time,” Meyer said during an appearance on the Sidepiece show on August 25. “I want to be a coach. She right away said, ‘I’m not sure I want to marry a football coach.’ And I was like, whoa, who said anything about getting married? And then we laughed. To this day, we still laugh about it. And ironically, I went to Ohio State as a grad student.”
“Then I took my first job for $6,000 a year at Illinois State University, and she was a nurse. We got engaged, and then I was ready to go to law school. I sent away for the LSAT. I was going to take six months off and study for it. And she said God’s got a plan for you. You want to be a coach. Keep swinging. She was my inspiration to keep going. And then a few months later, I got a call from Earle Bruce at Colorado State. And my career kind of took off. But I was ready to; I was ready to GTFO.”
Meyer and Shelley met in 1984 during their college days at the University of Cincinnati. Urban was a sophomore defensive back on the Bearcats football team, and Shelley was a first-year nursing student and Zeta Tau Alpha sorority member. They crossed paths during a Sigma Chi Derby Days charity event.
Shelley initially turned down his advances. However, after about three weeks of Urban Meyer’s persistence, she agreed to go on a date with him in May 1984. The two tied the knot in 1986 after two years of dating, embarking on a turbulent, nomadic journey through the lower ranks of college football coaching.
Shelley has been a constant support for Meyer, even after she once said she did not want a football coach as a husband. When Urban Meyer was making just $6,000/year as a graduate assistant, the working hours were a grueling 100-hour/week. He wanted to quit to go to law school. Shelley pushed him to stick with football because she knew he was too passionate about it to be happy doing anything else.
Urban Meyer’s intervention didn’t just save his early career; it helped him establish his career and name in the football industry. After Illinois, he got his first big gig with the Colorado State Rams. He served as the Rams’ wide receivers coach for six seasons from 1990 to 1995, working under his long-time mentor, Earle Bruce.
Decades later, Meyer’s inability to balance his personal health with the high-stakes pressure of football caught up to him. Following severe chest pains and exhaustion after the 2009 SEC Championship game, he initially resigned from his job at the Gators. Shelley and his family stepped in, prompting him to take a temporary leave of absence to prioritize his family.
Shelley has been there with him at every step of it. Before accepting the head coaching job at Ohio State, his children literally had him sign a handwritten “family contract.” It forced him to promise to take care of his health. It also mandated that he attend his kids’ sporting events and not let the pressures of winning consume his life again.
In 2018, an arachnoid cyst in his brain worsened due to stress. Shelley publicly stated she did not want to see him on the sidelines again. It ultimately led to his retirement from college coaching.