Catching Up with a Legend; for Donoher, 'Life Is Great'

Summary

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UD coaching icon has made his peace with game he loves

THERE ARE THREE DONS of Dayton basketball: Don "Monk" Meineke, the school's first All-American; Don May, who led UD to the 1967 NCAA final; and Donald Smith, who scored a school-record 52 points against Loyola-Chicago in 1973.

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Catching Up with a Legend; for Donoher, 'Life Is Great'

Then there's the Don, the Godfather of them all, Donald J. Donoher. The man who successfully ushered the basketball program into the modern era. The man with the most wins in school history. The man who took what former coach Tom Blackburn had built and expanded on it - with no prior head-coaching experience.

So it is appropriate that Donoher, who from 1964-89 coached the Flyers to eight NCAA tournament appearances, an NCAA final and an NIT championship, is the subject of the last feature in a 10-part series on UD greats, commemorating the school's 100-year basketball anniversary.

His former players call him a "father figure" and say he is "priest-like," something of which Donoher's t...

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