John McDonnell (1965-69)

[Turbine]

1966-67 UL Cross Country Team
Howard Trahan, Louis Maraist, John McDonnell Curtis James, Mike Maraist.

[Turbine]

2003
JOHN McDONNELL: In his 30th season (as Head Coach) at Arkansas, legendary cross country and track and field coach JOHN McDONNELL has positioned himself as one of the most successful collegiate coaches in any sport in the history of athletics.

McDonnell has led his UA squads to an astounding 36 national championships and 68 conference titles in cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field.

It is difficult to highlight any specific accomplishment in a career that has routinely set the highest standard of excellence, however, McDonnell is proud of the Razorbacks’ streak of 28-consecutive conference cross country titles. Arkansas captured the final 17 cross country crowns in the Southwest Conference before earning the first 11 in the Southeastern Conference. Not since 1973 has a conference team competed with Arkansas at the league meet and come away with a win.

McDonnell has been recognized countless times at the national, district and conference level for his coaching excellence. He has earned national coach of the year honors 25 times, district honors 52 times and conference laurels 35 times.

Born July 2, 1938 in County Mayo, McDonnell was an interesting story long before he came to Arkansas. He came to the United States in 1964 to work as a television cameraman in New York City. He hoped to make it in the big time but a promised position with ABC was delayed so he decided to accept a scholarship offer to run track at (University of) Louisiana. He was a six-time All-America in cross country and track at UL. He was the 1966-67 AAU 3,000 meter champion and he won the mile at the 1966 British Selection Games.

McDonnell was granted U.S. citizenship in 1969, the same year he graduated from UL. He coached high school track for two years in New Providence, N.J. and a year at Lafayette, La. before moving to Arkansas.

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[NewsCopy]

Former UL star John McDonnell a superstar

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The best way to understand John McDonnell's success is to look at his office carpet.

Plaques have become wallpaper in the University of Arkansas track and field department. Trophy cases have become cluttered closets. So many awards, so little space.

McDonnell, 66, must resort to floor space after 33 years of unprecedented collegiate success. A fair share of that wall coverage is dedicated to the Penn Relays Carnival's Championship of America wheels.

Since 1983, Arkansas has competed in all but one Penn Relays, the meet that begins anew Thursday at Franklin Field.

"The Penn Relays in my book is the best track meet," McDonnell said. "You have the Olympics and all, but this is what track is all about. You can have a race there and nobody knows who [the runners] are, but everyone's going crazy."

The Razorbacks are third on the all-time Championship of America winners list. Last year, for the third time, they won three relays - the 4xMile (16 minutes, 21.74 seconds), distance medley relay (9:33.74), and sprint medley relay (3:16.14). Their 4x800 team was third (7:23.15).

The Razorbacks likely will dominate again under the legendary Irish coach who has won 40 national titles in crosscountry and indoor and outdoor track and field. Ranked No. 1, the Razorbacks have the third-fastest 4x400-meter relay team (junior Omar Brown, senior Tyson Gay, sophomore Wallace Spearmon and senior Terry Gatson) with a time of 3:04.86 this spring.

"What John McDonnell does is raise the bar," Florida coach Mike Holloway said.

"He's the old man with all the championships," said Stanford women's coach Edrick Floreal, who ran at Arkansas from 1988 to 1990.

McDonnell said he modeled himself partly after former Villanova coach Jumbo Elliott and often recruited the same Irish and English runners. "He was the type of guy who took no nonsense," McDonnell said. "He had one thought: winning."

McDonnell's early disheveled program was often dismissed by recruits like a pair of old sneakers. "I [remember] thinking, 'If I could get one of those [championships], wouldn't that be awesome?' "

Now? No one touches McDonnell. Only four schools have more championships in their entire men's athletic programs as McDonnell's. His resume includes 75 conference titles, 160 all-Americans, and 28 national coach-of-the-year awards. He still thinks "one more" championship would be great.

After helping seven siblings work the family farm in County Mayo, Ireland, McDonnell immigrated to New York City in 1964.

He was a cameraman before becoming a six-time all-American at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He graduated and became a U.S. citizen in 1969.

The green rolling hills around the Fayetteville campus, where he started as the cross-country coach in 1972, remind him of his homeland. He took over track and field in 1978 and claimed his first national championship - in indoor track and field - in 1984.

"He's won 40 national championships," Arkansas football coach Houston Nutt said. "All I want is one."

The rest of the story

By Shannon Ryan
Inquirer Staff Writer

[NewsCopy]

John McDonnell is coach, psychologist and top recruiter for Arkansas, the most successful college track and field program in the country

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Drive into town on Highway 112 and notice the sign, the first of many reminders a special coach calls this place home.
White letters jump off the green background. Welcome to Fayetteville. "Track Capital of the World." 39 NCAA Track & Field Championships.

The University of Arkansas has actually won 40 men's national titles in track and field and cross country under coach John McDonnell, but the locals know better than to update the sign too quickly.

They'll just have to do it all over again.

McDonnell's Razorbacks come to Sacramento for the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships beginning Wednesday at Hornet Stadium widely favored to make it 41 national championships, so it might be best to wait until after Saturday night to tinker with that proud sign.

On campus, evidence of McDonnell's success is everywhere.

Walk into the Hall of Champions at Bud Walton Arena and see the testimonials to great Razorbacks track stars past: Mike Conley, Teddy Mitchell, Robert Howard, Alistair Cragg, Erick Walder.

There's a plaque on the floor exactly 28 feet, 3/4 inch from a pillar, commemorating Conley's school-record long jump in 1985, since surpassed by Walder's 28-8 1/4 in 1994. You can't rest on your laurels in Fayetteville.

McDonnell, 66, knows this all too well. They named the outdoor track after him - John McDonnell Field - but there's always a Florida, LSU or Tennessee challenging him. So the old-fashioned, conservative Irishman just keeps winning titles.

The plaques are all in his office: 18 national championships in indoor track, 11 in outdoor track and 11 in cross country.

All came under McDonnell, who since his arrival in northwest Arkansas has won more national championships than any other college coach in any sport. According to Arkansas media officials, UCLA men's volleyball coach Al Scates ranks second with 18 titles.

Only four schools have won more men's national titles than McDonnell - USC (72), UCLA (68), Stanford (57) and Oklahoma State (46) - according to the NCAA.

Ask McDonnell why's he's so successful, and he leans forward in his black office chair to offer some insight.

"You can say, well, we get good talent and all that type of stuff," he says with his Irish accent. "But lots of people get as good a talent as we do.

"Every coach out there knows the X's and O's ... but it's hard to apply it and (communicate) with the athlete, where you get the kids to respect you.

"They don't have to like you. But just to respect what you do and what you're telling 'em and getting them to believe in you, I think that's the key."

McDonnell stresses team loyalty. If someone falters, a teammate can do better than expected. He tells kids they can redshirt as freshmen, giving them a chance to adjust academically. He preaches earning a degree and looking clean-cut, so earrings are out when it's Razorback time.

"If you want to impress the ladies at night when you go out, you can wear your earrings," McDonnell says. "But you don't wear them at practice. You don't wear them at meets. You represent the university. You never know when you're going to meet somebody."

McDonnell, who maintains a runner's build, seems to savor playing psychologist, sitting down with each athlete and figuring out what makes him tick.

Upon arrival, they all talk about times and distances. Until the coach sets them straight.

"I talk about winning and winning only," he says. "Anytime you finish second, the media will step right over you to get to the guy that kicked your butt."

McDonnell, born in County Mayo in Western Ireland, came to the United States in 1964. He earned All-America honors as a distance runner at Southwestern Louisiana. When he had a chance to work in Fayetteville, where the rolling green hills remind him of home, he unpacked his bags.

Good thing for the Razorbacks. Two years before his arrival, Arkansas scored one point at the Southwest Conference Outdoor Championships. In 1990, the Razorbacks compiled 220.

Now they dominate the Southeastern Conference, in which the Razorbacks have won 12 of the past 14 outdoor titles since joining the league.

There was much fanfare surrounding McDonnell's 40th national title, which came at home in March when the Razorbacks won the NCAA Indoor crown. But the championship he really savors is his first one, an NCAA Indoor title in 1984 in Syracuse.

McDonnell, who is married with two children, had been coaching cross country since 1972 and the track programs since 1978, with several close calls but no national crown.

"I thought, Man, I'm one of those guys, you hear those stories: You can get there, but you can't win," he says.

No need to worry. That initial title was the first of 12 consecutive indoor crowns. McDonnell won his first NCAA cross country championship in 1984 and his first outdoor track title in 1985. Five times, McDonnell's teams won cross country and indoor and outdoor track titles in the same school year.

His peers acknowledge McDonnell is a master at his craft.

"He knows how to produce a winning team; he knows how to prepare his athletes emotionally for championships," Air Force coach Ralph Lindeman says.

McDonnell does things simply but powerfully. At an afternoon team meeting in the dark track locker room in a lower corner of Reynolds Razorback Stadium, he begins by shaking the hand of sophomore Peter Kosgei, who won the 3,000 steeplechase and the 5,000 and placed third in the 1,500 to score 26 points the previous weekend, leading the Razorbacks to yet another SEC crown.

There is little formality. McDonnell, wearing a red Nike cap, a long-sleeve green shirt and olive-colored slacks, stands behind an old, dusty lectern and says, "OK, distance runners, six to 10 miles." That's it.

At the track, he remains low-key, calling out split times and offering encouragement.

"It all starts with him, his personality," says junior Eric Brown, the

nation's third-ranked javelin thrower. "He's a great guy to be around. I think he's a great motivator.

"He's just there for us all the time."

Senior Said Ahmed, one of the nation's top 1,500 runners before suffering a hamstring injury last month, was born in Somalia and grew up in a tough neighborhood in Boston. He says McDonnell has made him feel at home in Fayetteville.

"Greatest coach, all time, track and field," Ahmed says. "He does care about every individual, who they are. He respects them.

"Different people have different cultures, different personalities. Some people are from Arkansas, some people are from over in Europe. He knows how to deal with that."

His former athletes remain loyal, too. Cragg and Daniel Lincoln, key figures in Arkansas' NCAA title at Hornet Stadium in 2003, still train under McDonnell and volunteer as assistants.

"You can still tell he's got the fires in his eyes," Lincoln says. "He still has that internal drive. And that rubs off on the team."

Sometimes McDonnell can get feisty.

"Last year when we didn't win indoor nationals, I saw the monster come out," says sophomore sprinter Wallace Spearmon, who credits McDonnell with creating a family atmosphere. "Man, I didn't know he could say stuff like that."

Stanford women's coach Edrick Floreal, a triple jumper at Arkansas from 1987 to 1990, says McDonnell makes him feel as if he's still part of Arkansas' family.

"John has the very strange ability to kind of get a whole bunch of guys from different areas to really believe in each other," Floreal says. "We were the Razorbacks, and everybody else was the enemy.

"I called a while ago asking for a favor. In true John fashion, he said, 'Once a Razorback, always a Razorback.' "

McDonnell says he doesn't care if he has sprinters, jumpers, throwers or distance runners.

"People say, 'Oh, you've changed the philosophy of your team,' " McDonnell says. "Whatever scores points, that's what we're going to have."

What McDonnell looks for are winners, something he can spot during a track meet or hear during a phone call. If the desire isn't there, the coach doesn't want him.

"There's certain qualities you can't coach, and one of them is the will to win," he says.

McDonnell isn't the program's only draw. Everyone wants to join a winner. The facilities are good - the

Randal Tyson Track Center has hosted the past four NCAA Indoor Championships - and Fayetteville offers a small-town charm and low-key pace you can't find in a big city.

"People are laid-back and not overly in a rush going places," McDonnell says. "It's a good place for distance running, too. Lots of places to train, lots of hills."

Houses remain affordable, although a waitress at Doe's Eat Place on Dickson Street complained a recent increase in prices left her and her husband unable to find anything decent for under $100,000.

McDonnell lives about five miles from campus, drives a big, red truck and in the summer likes to retreat to his 2,500-acre cattle ranch in Pryor, Okla.

One thing he doesn't like to do: fly. McDonnell this season drove eight hours to the SEC meet in Nashville, Tenn., and a similar distance to Bloomington, Ind., for the NCAA Mideast Regional.

How much longer will McDonnell coach? The sparkle in his eyes is still there, but at times a look of frustration breaks through.

"If it's not fun, I'll move on," he says. "The NCAA is putting in so many rules and regulations, it's not getting to be too much fun anymore.

"They spoon-feed those kids, treat 'em like babies. They're 18 and 23 years old. Those guys are men."

And this coach is a legend.

A list of coaches with the most national championships in NCAA history:

No.	Coach	School	Sports
40	John McDonnell	Arkansas	Men's track/cross country
18	Al Scates	UCLA	Men's volleyball
17	Ted Banks	Texas-El Paso	Men's track/cross country
17	Dick Gould	Stanford	Men's tennis
16	Dave Williams	Houston	Men's golf

The source of the story

By John Schumacher
Bee Staff Writer

[NewsCopy]

  With the Arkansas Razorbacks football team struggling the past two seasons, it was sort of a joke to say, “Arkansas is a track school.”

Track may be a nonrevenue sport but there certainly isn’t anything funny about what John Mc-Donnell and the Razorbacks have accomplished over the years.

Sunday, with time running out, the Razorbacks reached into their reserves and picked up 27 points in the 5, 000-meter run to rocky top Tennessee and give John McDonnell his 79 th conference title (counting cross country and indoor track as well as outdoor track ).

Seems like the paint gets dry on one sign saying how many national championships the Razorbacks track team has won and they have to start over.

McDonnell and Arkansas own 42 national titles.

To say that is beyond peer would be a gross understatement.

If he were a football or basketball coach, his salary would easily be 20 times what he makes now.

Go down the list of guys who have trained under him and you will find world-class athletes who point directly at McDonnell for their success.

He loves his kids, and they love him.

There’s not anything he won’t do for them, and they never doubt that.

One of the favorite stories of what lengths he’ll go to for his kids has been talked about a long time, an incident that allegedly happened a few years ago.

Some of the track team left the weight room in the Big House (Broyles Complex ) and headed for the track only to discover former head football Coach Danny Ford had chained and locked the gate on Razorback Stadium the athletes used on their way to the track.

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Wally Hall
nwanews.com

[NewsCopy]

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Alumni Association honored Arkansas cross country and track and field head coach John McDonnell as one of its Outstanding Alumni during the 2006 Homecoming Week.

The Outstanding Alumni Award is the highest honor the university bestows upon a former student. It is given in recognition of outstanding professional and personal achievements that have brought honor and distinction to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

To be eligible for this award, one must be a graduate or former student having attended no less than 10 years ago. The recipients were selected by the Alumni Association's Awards Committee.

During McDonnell’s tenure with the Razorbacks, his squads have won 42 NCAA championships; 11 for cross country, 19 for indoor track, and 12 for outdoor track.

McDonnell has more national championships than any coach in any sport in the history of collegiate athletics. McDonnell has coached all but three of the university's 178 track All-Americans to 635 All-America honors and he has coached 23 Olympians, which include a gold, silver and bronze medalist.

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[CajunRed]

Although I was young, I remember watching John McDonnell run. He was a distance runner and I think he was the best that ever ran for the University. At the time he was running, he was one of the best in the country.

[ShowDog]

Although I was young, I remember watching John McDonnell run. He was a distance runner and I think he was the best that ever ran for the University. At the time he was running, he was one of the best in the country.

I saw him run many times too. Do you remember when the Southwestern Relays were really big? Got Jim Ryan, John Pennel, and many other olympians' autographs. My favorite was getting Billy Cannon's in the spring of his senior year at LSU when he won the 100 yd dash in 9.5. A pretty good time back then. In the open division, Bobby Morrow, an Olymipian ran a 9.4 into the wind. He was a snob though, wouldn't even give a kid an autograph.

Speaking of track, anyone remember Don and Dave Styron? They were the twins from Northeast and were phenoms in track. John Pennel the world champ pole vaulter was also from Northeast. Old McNaspy was packed for the relays back then.

Behind the Penn and Kansas relays,we were probably about the 3rd biggest with competition from the Texas Relays for that position.

Who was the Englishman who ran for us in the early 60's. His first name was Malcolm. Was a good miler but a great 2 miler.

Lastly, anyone remember our 440 relay team in the early 70's. The one Don Credeur anchored to 2nd place behind Southern Cal in the NCAA's. Heck of a relay team.

[NewsCopy]

FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long doesn't expect Arkansas' next track and field coach to duplicate John Mc-Donnell's success.

McDonnell announced Monday he will retire at the end of the outdoor season after 36 years and 42 national championships with the Razorbacks. McDonnell, 69, has won more national championships than all but four schools have won, in men's sports.

"The expectations for the next coach will be high,"Long said. "I'll be honest, I don't have the expectations to win 42 national championships over the next 36 years."

Long said McDonnell did him a favor by announcing his retirement plans during the season because Long will be able to scout prospective replacements the rest of the year. Long said he had no "preset formula"for selecting Mc-Donnell's replacement but hopes to have one in place by this summer.

Whomever Long eventually chooses will have the enormous task of carrying on the winning legacy McDonnell established.

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BY MARTY COOK

[J-Town Cajun]

Any chance the Coach McDonnell comes back to UL to finish off his coaching career and resurrect this program?

[cajun67]

I think the name mentioned is "Malcolm Robinson", first of the European invasion followed by John. In school with both of them. Super athletes and people.

By the way, love them shorts in the picture. Sure were skinny guys. But back then, so was I.

[GetTheFacts1st]

_ Any chance the Coach McDonnell comes back to UL to finish off his coaching career and resurrect this program? _

He can come back and clean up the mess after sending Sivley to us. LOL!

[NewsCopy]

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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[NewsCopy]

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!