On May 27, FIBA announced the 2013 Class of Inductees of the FIBA Hall of Fame, including Canadian basketball coaching legend, Jack Donohue. He took Canadian basketball to new heights and was the long serving coach of the men's national team, from 1972 to 1988. A native New Yorker, Donohue is best known in international basketball for steering Canada to their finest moments on the court. Put in charge in 1972, he helped turn the side into a force and at the Montreal Games in 1976, Donohue steered a Canadian squad that had players like Phil Tollestrup, Bill Robinson, Lars Hansen, James Russell and Martin Riley to a fourth-place finish.
One year after guiding Canada to gold-medal glory when they hosted the 1983 World University Games in Edmonton, Donohue returned to the Olympic field with his country in Los Angeles and the side that had Jay Triano finished fourth. Donohue's last time at the helm was in 1988 at the Olympics in Seoul, where Canada came in sixth.Four years later and he was enshrined in the Canada Basketball Hall of Fame, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, the Canada Sports Hall of Fame, the Ontario Basketball Hall of Fame, the New York Basketball Hall of Fame and the Terry Fox Hall of Fame.
Even before his time with Canada, Donohue had made an indelible imprint on the sport. As the coach of Power Memorial Academy in New York, Donohue coached Lew Alcindor, a center who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and became one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.
From 1965 to 1972, Donohue led Holy Cross University in Massachusetts and twice was named NCAA Division One Coach of the Year. When it comes to Donohue, the most cherished memories do not deal with wins or defeats. Instead, what endeared the coach to everyone who knew him was his insistence that players understand the need to be being good human beings.
"You can only be a good basketball player for a certain amount of time," he once said. "You can be a good person for the rest of your life."