Former Central, Southeast basketball standout remembered as friend to all

More than two decades after his basketball career had ended, Kermit Meystedt never dismissed his roots.

In 1993, Meystedt put forth an idea while chatting with Terry Kitchen, who was Central High School's athletic director at the time.

For years, Central teams had competed on the gym's synthetic surface at the school -- now known as Central Junior High School -- that only got harder as time wore on. After repetitive practices, players were often forced to deal with shin splints and knee problems, and the playing surface was the issue.

But Meystedt's initiative was the solution.

"[Meystedt] said, 'Coach, you know, it would be nice if we had a wooden floor,' and I said, 'Boy, that would be great, but where are we going to get the money?'" Kitchen said. "He said, 'Coach, let me work on that.' ... Sure enough, in just a matter of a few days, he came back and said, 'Hey, let's get a new floor.'"

The cost for a new wooden floor was $75,000, but Meystedt spearheaded a fund-raising effort to give back to his alma mater.

In only a matter of months, the construction of the new floor was complete, and Kitchen said it felt "like a miracle."

"For somebody to get that thing done in that short of a time period, it was like we had the Almighty on our side," Kitchen said. "But the credit goes to Kermit because he was the one that headed that up and got the job done."

The accomplishment was one of many in the life of Meystedt, who died Saturday at the age of 69 after a three-month battle with liver cancer.

A hall-of-famer at both Central and Southeast Missouri State, Meystedt is remembered by those who knew him closely more for his generosity off the court than his abilities on the court.

"He was self-made," said Charlie Bertrand, who started alongside Meystedt for three seasons at Southeast. "He was very successful, a very giving person. He cared about everybody, and he would be the first to give somebody a handout or give somebody in need. He was that type of person.

"He had a gift in athletics, but he was a very common person. He didn't let his ability in athletics go to his head, so to speak. He was just a good person. We had lots of fun at college in practices and road trips. He was just a good person to know in life, let alone athletics. He had more to offer than just a good jump shot."

Meystedt was born July 20, 1945, in Cape Girardeau, son to Clarence and Hazel Meystedt.

He attended junior high school at Trinity Lutheran, where he played basketball against Curtis Williams.

In the ninth grade, however, Williams and Meystedt joined forces at Central, and the two began illustrious careers together.

"He was probably one of the most talented ball players I've played with and against, lots of talent," Williams said. "He could do lots of things -- pass, shoot, dribble. Plus, he was a better person than he was a ball player, and that's always important to me."

Meystedt quickly earned the nickname "Moose" during his four years at Central. He was named first team all-conference and all-district in 1962 and '63 and was the Tigers' leading scorer and rebounder his senior year, during which he earned honorable mention all-state honors and set a single-game school record by scoring 47 points against Farmington.

"At the time he was playing here, I was in grade school," Kitchen said. "I remember watching him, and I was just marveled about how good of an athlete he was. All I heard all the time was 'Moose Meystedt, Moose Meystedt,' and you know what? It was all true.

"He's one of the best athletes I've ever seen walk the halls of Cape Central, no doubt about it."

Meystedt also excelled on the baseball field under the direction of legendary coach Leon Brinkopf. He took the mound in 1962 at Busch Stadium and won a 4-2 decision over St. Louis University High School in the state championship game, capping off a perfect 21-0 season. Meystedt also played first base for Central and was named first team all-conference and all-district his junior and senior years.

In the fall of 1963, the 6-foot-4 Meystedt continued his playing career at Southeast, where he received a four-year scholarship to play basketball and was a two-sport athlete.

Meystedt earned first-team all-conference honors and was an honorable mention all-American in 1966-67. He led the Redhawks in scoring and rebounding and set a single-game school record with a 52-point performance against McKendree on January 14, 1967. He also set the single-game school record for field goals made (24) and field goals attempted (34) during the same game. The records still stand today.

"It was a magical night," Meystedt said in a 1993 interview with the Southeast Missourian. "It seemed everything I was shooting was going in."

Williams earned a track scholarship at Southeast and joined the basketball team his sophomore season. The first African-American student-athlete at Southeast, Williams was chosen as the team's Most Valuable Player in 1967, but the decision definitely wasn't unanimous.

"It could have been either one of us because our stats were so close. ... In that ('66-67) season, he was named to the honorable mention all-American team, which was a great achievement at the time," Williams said. "I'll tell you, he was a hell of a ball player."

Meystedt finished his college career with 1,141 points and is currently the school's third all-time leading rebounder with 834 boards. He signed a professional contract in 1968 to play for the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association but broke his wrist during inter-squad practice just before the season began, thus ending his career.

Bertrand played point guard for Southeast and vividly remembers Meystedt's playing style.

"He could leap. He was tremendously agile. He would've liked to have been a point guard because he loved to shoot a 30-foot jump shot. He was a swing forward but just a tremendous leaper. ... He would've been a guard in the ABA because he was just that quick," Bertrand said. "He was a good passer. He wasn't a power player. He was a finesse player. He could get on the boards but also lead the fast break if he had to -- good hands, good dribble. He could play in the open court as well as a guard."

Meystedt was inducted into Central's hall of fame in 1995. He was joined by Williams as two of 12 members inducted into the Southeast hall of fame in 2003.

But off the court, Meystedt left his biggest impact on those he knew and loved.

He married his wife, Sandy, on Nov. 6, 1970. Together, they had three children -- Madra, Jay and Aron -- and founded Genesis Transportation in 1982 before retiring in June 2012.

Genesis was a trucking company but also served as an outward expression of their Christian faith to provide for a number of missions throughout the country.

"Any time there was a situation where people were in need, you could get anything you wanted from Kermit. That says a lot about his character, says a lot about his family today. He has a great family," Bertrand said. "He was a very religious person but a very caring and giving person as well. He liked his fellow human beings, I guess. He never had any hang-ups, as far as prejudices or anything like that. He was a very understanding person."

After flooding hit Cape Girardeau during the construction of Central's gym floor, Meystedt instead turned his attention to donations to the Red Cross in order to help with flood relief.

Not even a year later, Genesis transported a trailer load of cleaning supplies to a Red Cross warehouse in Macon, Georgia, where the state recently had been hit with some of the most devastating flooding in years.

"He was just an exceptionally generous person," Williams said. "He would help anybody that he could, anybody that needed help, and he just took the time.

"I remember on my 60th birthday, he came from Cape to St. Louis to help me celebrate. My daughter had given me a surprise 60th, and he came up to that and spoke at that function for me. It really made me proud. He was just a good individual."

Kitchen knew the challenge of constructing a new gym floor wouldn't be easy, but there was a different sense of comfort with Meystedt in control.

"He came through," said Kitchen, who now serves as the junior high's athletic director. "I don't know if anybody else could have done it like Moose.

"Moose was just the kind of person that when he got something on his mind, he was going to get the job done. ... When people come into our facility over here, they still look at that gym floor and say, 'Oh my gosh.' They are marveled at what kind of facility we have over here, and it would not be like this without the leadership of Kermit Meystedt to put that basketball floor in."