UA hosts special tribute to McDonnell’s special career
Posted on Sunday, September 21, 2008
MICHAEL WOODS Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Former University of Arkansas track and field coach John McDonnell speaks during a tribute to the legendary Arkansas coach Thursday at the Tyson Indoor Track.
You can count on one finger the Arkansas coach always exceeding Frank Broyles' demands.
It's John McDonnell, hands down.
Even Broyles, the ever demanding, now-retired University of Arkansas athletics director, didn't dream demanding the 42 national championships and 84 conference championships the now-retired McDonnell won coaching the Razorbacks.
As SEC Commissioner Mike Slive remarked," They are the most championships won by any coach in any sport. He stands alone."
County Mayo, Ireland native McDonnell won them head coaching UA men's cross country from 1974-2007 and head coaching men's indoor and outdoor track from 1978-2008 after being the distance coach under former coach Ed Renfrow from 1972-77.
"I remember," McDonnell recalled Thursday night of Broyles telling McDonnell he would become head track coach," Frank saying, ' We're not a Texas. Just finish in the top half of the conference meets and I'll be happy. ' I said, ' What about a national championship ? ' He said, ' I'd be really happy if we win one every 15 years. ."
McDonnell paused.
"The way I've figured it out," McDonnell said," I got 631 years left. And I think they have to keep paying me until I pass away. Just joking."
Well, it's no joke the UA tried to make as much inroads as it could paying homage to its track-coaching legend with Thursday's John McDonnell Tribute Dinner.
New UA director of athletics Jeff Long's staff did an unbelievable job overseeing the turnaround of the Randal Tyson Indoor Track into a ballroom accommodating a banquet and some 700 attendees. Attendees included athletes from about every Razorback team McDonnell ever coached which number some all-time greats of track and field.
Speakers included Broyles, UA President Alan Sugg, Chancellor David Gearhart, and a tribute from Long, saying a bust of McDonnell with an accompanying plaque will be installed at the outdoor track at John McDonnell Field.
Sam Seemes, a U. S. Track and FIeld and Cross Country Coaches Association representative, announced a John McDonnell Program Award for the men's program compiling the year's best composite for the NCAA Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor. Even a former U. S. President paid tribute via video.
Bill Clinton invited McDonnell and the 1992 Razorback team to the White House after the Hogs had completed a banner Penn Relays weekend in Philadelphia. Clinton recited McDonnell's accomplishments on Thursday's video and closed with "His service to the University of Arkansas is a tremendous source of pride for all of us who love it."
One of McDonnell's greatest athletes, nine-time NCAA champion and 1992 Olympic triple jump gold medalist Mike Conley, said he had never seen a tribute so rewarding.
"It kind of reminds me of being at the ESPYS," Conley said.
McDonnell was stunned.
"I had no idea it would be of this magnitude," McDonnell said. "It is very special."
Niall O'Shaughnessy, the Irish-born first great McDonnell distance runner who helped the 1974 Hogs win the first of now 34 consecutive conference cross country crowns, returned from Ireland to honor his coach, who from nothing now leaves a legacy of championships and worldclass indoor and outdoor track facilities.
"There wasn't a track when I got here," O'Shaughnessy said. "I used to do sprints across the football field when the football players weren't there. It's amazing what John has done. It will never be matched again."
Former Hall of Fame football coach Broyles opined peak preparation to peak performance sets McDonnell's coaching apart.
"A peak performance is making the ordinary do the extraordinary and making the extradordinary an All-American," Broyles said. "That's what John was able to do."
"Exactly," said Harold Smith, a doctor now but once a nobody walk-on distance runner who stunned with eight second-place place points when the 1982 Hogs won the UA's first SWC Oudoor.
"I know exactly what Coach Broyles was saying," Smith said," because I was one of those ordinary athletes John motivated to do something extraordinary."
It wasn't even that All-SWC performance of which Smith spoke.
"I had run a prelim in the morning, and ran the worst race of my life," Smith said. "John came up and said, ' I'm anchoring you on the distance medley tonight. ' I said, ' The way I ran ? ' John looked at me and said, ' You leave everything on the track tonight ! ' That night we won the distance medley and I ran 15 seconds faster than I had ever run. I don't know how he did it, but he did."
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