FAYETTEVILLE - During his 82 years, it seems John McDonnell won more first places and second fathered more often than anybody.
Arkansas’ track and cross country coach of 40 national championships and 84 Southwest Conference and SEC championships died last Monday.
McDonnell’s championships speak volumes.
Achieving as a second father figure speaks louder, say six among his champions.
Always first the father of daughter Heather and son Sean and husband to wife Ellen whose patience for sharing is appreciated vastly say the “second sons,” Razorbacks grads Stanley Redwine, Dr. Mark Andersen, Gary Taylor, Frank O’Mara, David Swain and Reuben Reina, recalled experiences with the coach they called “John.”
“He knew how to be that father away from home,” Taylor, an Englishman now long calling Arkansas home, said.
“If you were wrong he’d let you know and if you did right he’d let you know,” Kansas Coach Redwine said. “And you could call him about things that were not track related but life related. The reason I wanted to stay in coaching is truly because of him.”
John was their second father but nobody’s sugar daddy.
“It was a given you were going to see him the next day no matter what happened the night before,” Reina said. “You’d better be sure Sunday morning to be out there bright and early for a long run.”
While easy for John to encourage or berate his runners passing by during track meets, Andersen marveled how his coach covered cross country ground.
“John was like a Ninja,” Andersen said. “During those cross country meets you’d think, ‘He can’t yell at me again.’ Then he’d pop up out of nowhere and be yelling at you again. He ran faster than us half the time.”
O’Mara said learning from McDonnell prepared him to compete fiercely yet ethically in business.
“He always said ‘When you beat them, shake hands with them,”O’Mara said. “He always did things right.”
Swain said all could learn from John assembling athletes from Arkansas to around the world excelling together.
“It didn’t matter to him race, ethnicity, background, any of it,” Swain said. “We were all blessed with his foresight knowing about people.”
John ingrained team spirit in a sport individually diverse.
“It was about We, not I,” Reina said. “That’s the way he wanted it and we would do anything to please him.”
It’s fitting the baseball Razorbacks host a Super Regional as John’s life is celebrated.
For it was at baseball that Razorbacks fans gave their track coach the most spontaneous tribute.
During the 1985 championship weekend in Fayetteville McDonnell’s men had Saturday won the SWC Outdoor when he came Sunday to George Cole Field watching his good friend Norm DeBriyn’s Hogs win the SWC Tournament.
From nowhere pregame applause rippled, increased and crescendoed.
Approaching his seat, John McDonnell bewilderingly searched for the commotion’s cause.
Then with that “little grin” McDonnell’s Hogs recall whenever his Irish eyes were smiling, he realized the commotion was himself.
These ears never heard a more spontaneous ovation.
Or one more deserved.