ST. JOSEPH, Minn. -- Mike Durbin still remembers the advice his mother gave him when he left his native Ohio to take over as head basketball coach at the College of Saint Benedict in 1986.
 
"She told me to come out here for five years and get some experience," said Durbin, who grew up as the oldest of nine children in Howard, Ohio (population 246), and spent one year as the interim head women's basketball coach at Wittenberg (Ohio) University before taking the job at CSB.
 
"Then, if I wanted to, I could start working my way back home," said Durbin, who, instead found a new home in Central Minnesota. He is now in his 38^th season as the Bennies' head coach and boasts 744 career victories, which as of Jan. 29 ranked him 30^th all-time in all divisions of women's college basketball.
 
His teams have won or shared 13 MIAC titles and have advanced to the NCAA Division III tournament 17 times, including final four appearances in 1992-93 and again in 1998-99 when CSB finished as national runner-up.
 
He will hit another major milestone this Saturday by coaching in his 1,000^th game at CSB when the Bennies play host to St. Scholastica in an MIAC matchup at 1 p.m. at Claire Lynch Hall, which will make him the first coach in school history, as well as the first MIAC women's basketball coach, to accomplish that feat.
 
"I came here and ended up loving everything about this place," said Durbin, whose team (8-5 MIAC, 10-7 overall) plays host to Augsburg at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Claire Lynch Hall.
 
"I loved the people I was working with and the players I got to coach. I met (his wife) Teri (the director of admissions services at CSB and SJU) and we put down roots. (Saint Ben's) matched my personal values. I grew up in a small, close-knit community. I had seven sisters and we were a Catholic family," said Durbin. ""This place turned out to be the perfect fit. Everything seemed to mesh."
 
Durbin did have opportunities to leave over the years. In the 1990s, he was a finalist for head coaching jobs at nearby Division II program St. Cloud State and at then-Division II and now NAIA Morningside (Iowa).
 
"But this was where I really wanted to be," he said. "Suddenly five years became 10. Then 10 became 20. Now here we are pushing 40."
 
Over that time, he's coached close to 400 players – forming what has become a large extended family itself.
 
"The biggest thing about Mike was the way he cared about us as people," said Laura Wendorff Meyer '00, who played for Durbin from 1996-2000 and remains the program's all-time leader in both points (1,775) and rebounds (1,053). "It wasn't just about basketball. He wanted to win, of course. And we had some really amazing teams."
 
"But he also cared about our education and the other things going on in our lives." Meyer related. "I never felt like we were just a number to him. In fact, sometimes we joked he was like a second Dad. If something happened, he was there to help. Our parents weren't with us on campus. But Mike was always there to save the day."
 
Of course, those players are also the first to attest to Durbin's coaching acumen.
 
"He's really good at playing to people's strengths," said Amy Stifter Gagnon '11, who finished her collegiate career with 1,204 points. "He didn't get stuck in any one way of doing things. He designed around the players he had. If he didn't have the personnel to do the things he'd been doing, he was able to adapt."
 
Both Meyer and Gagnon said Durbin was also a master of knowing how to keep things fun – an important trait as the basketball season stretches on for months in the dead of Minnesota winters.
 
"He obviously knows basketball or he wouldn't have been there this long," Meyer said. "But he also knows how important it is to build a strong culture people want to be part of."
 
"We did so many things to keep practices light," added Gagnon, who went on to become the head girls basketball coach at Annandale (Minnesota) High School for several seasons. "I think about the half-court shot, which was such a fun tradition. It makes me smile now to look on Instagram and see it still going.
 
"I actually took that when I was coaching here in Annandale. I'm not there anymore, but they're still doing it too. So he's definitely had those kind of ripple effects."
 
Durbin is quick to credit his players and assistant coaches for keeping him motivated all these years. That includes current staff like Steve Howe-Veenstra (now in his 23^rd season with the program) and Rick Canton, who joined the staff in 2021, but previously had a long run as the head girls basketball coach at Pine Island High School and sent two of his daughters Laura (a 2011 graduate) and Whitney (2013) to play for Durbin.
 
And, of course, there is his longtime assistant Denny Johnson, who retired in 2016. Johnson and Durbin were both finalists for the head coaching job back in 1986. Durbin was hired in basketball while Johnson became CSB's longtime head softball coach.
 
And both served as assistants under one another.
 
"It's amazing to look back at all the incredible experiences I had with Denny," Durbin said. "He's an incredible person and still one of my best friends today."
 
While Johnson is now enjoying retirement, Durbin remains on the job – continuing to build on a legacy his current players view with awe.
 
"1,000 games here and close to 750 wins overall – that's pretty amazing to think about," said senior standout Carla Meyer, who earlier this month became the 21^st player in school history to cross the 1,000-point mark. "He's been here so long and established such an incredible tradition. I feel fortunate to be part of that."
 
And Durbin said he isn't ready to call it quits just yet.
 
"I can see down the line to a point when it will come to an end," he said. "But right now I still love what I'm doing. I tell people only half-jokingly that some of it will come down to how well recruiting goes. That's an aspect of the job that has certainly evolved since I first got here. But it's a process I still really enjoy," said Durbin. "I didn't come here expecting to be around 38 years later. This is a profession that can sometimes chew you up and spit you out. But that's never been my experience. I'm just extremely fortunate to have found a place where I was able to fit in the way I do (at CSB)."
 
"(New York Yankees baseball great) Lou Gehrig said he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth," said Durbin. "I feel like I'm at least the second luckiest to have been able to be here doing this for as long as I have."