[1] Tappmeyer was born in Gerald, Missouri, attended East Central Junior College where he played basketball.
In the fall of 1988, he was hired as the Northwest Missouri State University head basketball coach.
He qualified to the NCAA Tournament ten times, with two appearances ending in berths to the Elite Eight (2002 and 2004)..
His teams had a record of 143 wins and only 25 losses at the school's Bearcat Arena during his final 12 seasons.
The team finished with a 13-5 Great Lakes Valley Conference record, while winning the West Division title.
Tappmeyer also guided USML to their first-ever GLVC Tournament victory, a 71-60 win against Drury in the quarterfinals.
He accomplished a winning season in each of his three campaigns, which had not been done in the school since the first four years of the basketball program existence (starting in 1966-67).
In 2015-16, he guided the girls basketball team to a Class 4 third-place finish, before announcing his retirement at the end of the season.