John McDonnell (1965-69)

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PHILADELPHIA — John McDonnell was doing fine in New York in the mid-1960s. McDonnell, an Irish immigrant, came to the United States at 26 and became a cameraman at WOR-TV, earning $220 a week.

He was also a fast miler, and Southwestern Louisiana University (now University of Louisiana) offered him an athletic scholarship. So he gave up his job, got an education and became a track coach.

In June, after the N.C.A.A. championships, he will retire, only weeks short of his 70th birthday. He has been cross-country coach at Arkansas since 1972 and also the men’s track coach there since 1977.

Since 1984, his athletes have won N.C.A.A. team titles 19 times in indoor track, 12 times in outdoor track and 11 times in cross-country. In the Penn Relays here at Franklin Field, his Arkansas men, starting in 1987, have won the 4xmile relay or its metric equivalent 19 times and the distance medley 15 times. He has coached such renowned athletes as Tyson Gay, Mike Conley, Joe Falcon, Alistair Cragg and Wallace Spearmon Sr. and Jr.

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Any discussion of the NCAA's winningest coach naturally begins with UCLA's legendary basketball guru John Wooden. Wooden was far more than the best teacher of basketball to ever walk onto a court, he was also revered as an expert on teaching and winning in the game of life. Known as the "Wizard of Westwood", Wooden won 665 games in 27 seasons at UCLA and 10 NCAA titles during this last 12 years, including 7 straight from 1967 to 1973. He also had an 88-game winning streak and two undefeated, back-to-back national championship teams. The rest of the story 2008 Ed Bagley

[RaginFan2]

Nice article. Awesome accomplishments by UL alum John McDonnell. Congratulations, John, and best wishes for a long and enjoyable retirement! We are extremely proud to have you as an alumnus of this university!

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  McDonnell was born July 2, 1938, in County Mayo, Ireland. He grew up on a dairy farm, where he knew what hard work was, milking three or four cows by hand before and after school.

"Knowing what hard work was didn't do me any harm," he said.

He wasn't a runner until fellow Irishman Ronnie Delaney won the 1,500 meters in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and all of Ireland "wanted to be Ronnie Delaney," he said. He had some success in the country around County Mayo, outrunning in a mile race a university 800-meter champion who appeared in a "beautiful white warm-up suit" while McDonnell wore soccer shorts and ran in his bare feet.

"That last 200, I was seeing stars," he remembered. "I thought that finish would never come, but I beat him, and that's how my career started."

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 FAYETTEVILLE -- John McDonnell already had a track and field meet and a 7,000-seat outdoor facility named after him.

Now, the former Arkansas men's track coach will have his name attached to a high-profile race.

Arkansas officials announced Monday that they'll honor the coaching legend by having the mile run at this week's Tyson Invitational be known as the John McDonnell Mile.

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[Boomer]

DISTANCE RUNNER WAS MALCOM rOBINSON---HAD HIS ashes sprinkled around the old track a few years back-----the 440 yd or 400 meter relay was Harold Porter, Pat Gullet,??????, and Credur----Another year it was Porter, gullet, Credur and,???????---think we lost to USC and to Memphis State!!!!!