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Don Donoher: Postscript

On Friday April 12, 2024, Donald J. Donoher -- clinging to the distinction of being the oldest living coach to have taken a team to a Final Four -- passed away peacefully at the age of 92.  For a life well-traveled, well-fought, and his own special brew of fire, brimstone, and class, "Mick" has taken his final shot among the Flyer mortals and solidified his place on campus as a Greek-like figure from the past that will never stray too far from any subsequent generation's present.  Perhaps no other personality in nearly 175 years of the University of Dayton commanded so much respect and attention while at the same time showering the city of Dayton with untold treasure.  He provided UD and the Gem City an embarrassment of riches that reached well beyond his 437-275 record, NCAA success, ambassadorship, and stewardship to teaching old kids how to be young men. In athletics, you never want to follow the GOAT. That means you don't want to be the guy that replaces Michael Jordan or Adolph Rupp. Instead, you want to be the guy that replaces the guy that replaced Jordan and Rupp.  Donoher never had that luxury.  Playing under Tom Blackburn and then coaching next to him after a post-graduation stint in the US Army, it might have been fate alone that put him there; not even Blackburn himself knew his end was as near as it was until it was too late to do anything about it.  Donoher came out of the bullpen and replaced the man everyone felt was irreplaceable.  The easiest thing to do was to emulate his predecessor, but Don Donoher never played the part.  From start to finish, Mick never tried to be the next Tom Blackburn; the best version of himself was all he would ultimately promise.  Some of Tom's touches tagged along of course, but Don put his own unique stamp on everything he did.  Abrasive and demanding one minute, then as soft and gentlemanly as Arnold Palmer the next.  Every man has his faults and he lugged his own share, but things had to be done a certain way: the right way, the wrong way, or Don Donoher's way.  As a coach he was often difficult to please and hard to play for, but as a man and a mentor, few ever deserted him.  I think part of that loyalty fell upon his commitment to fairness -- nearly everyone that played for Don Donoher more or less got what they deserved. He offered no quarter to HS prep stars, upperclassmen, captains, rural farm boys, or urban minorities; if Mick thought you could help UD win, the minutes were doled out.  If you were useless however, you picked splinters for three or four seasons. Could a guy like Donoher coach in today's climate?  Legendary Indiana head coach Bob Knight was one of Don's closest friends and coaching admirers.  In some ways they were identical twins. In other ways, as distant as Ghandi and Napoleon.  Both ended up in the College Basketball Hall of Fame.  It's probably best to leave Donoher's protocols and achievements to the timestamp they occurred -- not because of animosity but because his true essence was partly engineered by the zeitgeist.  Wilt Chamberlain cannot be compared to Michael Jordan for the same reasons. Fans old enough to remember the Donoher coaching era invariably have their own favorite memories.  Many of us enjoyed the Sunday morning Don Donoher Show on WHIO Channel 7 during the basketball season.  My favorite memory of the ol' ball coach was his self-deprecating humility.  He often said, "We might win tonight if I don't screw it up."  Mick was a man that understood basketball was still a business and fans (and athletic directors) were often fickle: the genius doing his Ouija board magic in a Flyer win, and the overpaid  bonehead after a Flyer loss.  Not much has changed. His friendship with coaching legends like Ray Meyer were moments where the soft side of Don often gushed out.  The most tender of those soft spots was reserved for his wife Sonia. His wife of 66 years, she passed away in 2020 and many close acquaintances believe it was a loss Don never fully reconciled. Flyer fans must now reconcile the loss of Don himself and put the final capstone on his life.  He meant different things to different people, but the common thread was simple: he was one of us.  He sat in the same classrooms, walked the same halls, and wore the same cap and gown.  He understood why everything mattered as much as it did and felt a calling and gratitude to his alma mater. Even when he had offers to coach elsewhere he ultimately turned them down.  The ending of his Flyer coaching career remains muddy and convoluted.  It was a flashpoint in time when college basketball was changing and Dayton was not changing along with it.  Good, bad, or indifferent, Don never lived with bitterness or contempt and loved UD in his final breaths as much as he ever did as a player or coach. That's probably the final and most powerful lesson he leaves all of us: be thankful it happened at all, not sad it came to an end.  Goodbyes are never easy.  This 8-Part series was and remains a living archive to ease the pain. Read the full article

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More to come from UDPride!

Working on some things and trying to up the social media game a few months from now. Just testing...

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Well its a start.

You have to start somewhere. So this is it.