Terry Donahue ’67, M.S. ’77

Posted On - May 28, 2015


From his time as an undergraduate student to his two-decade reign as head coach of UCLA football, Terry Donahue has devoted the vast majority of his adult life to the Bruins. As a student-athlete, Donahue embodied the 1965 “gutty little Bruin” football team that upset heavily favored USC and, later, No. 1 Michigan State in the Rose Bowl game. After graduating, he remained a driving force behind Bruin football, working in the early 1970s as an assistant coach to the team that won another Rose Bowl championship against Ohio State in 1976.

Named head coach that same year, Donahue raised UCLA football to the pinnacle, building his team into one of the top programs in the country. During his 20-year career with the University, he became the coach with the most wins in Pac-10 (98 league victories) and UCLA (151 wins) history, and only the second coach in college history to win four consecutive New year’s Day bowl victories. The team played in 13 bowl games, including four Rose Bowls and five Pac-10 championships. He is also the first in history to appear in the rose bowl as a player, assistant coach, and head coach. Most notably, he finished his career with a 10-9-1 winning record against USC.

Under his guidance, UCLA also produced 34 first-team All-Americans and had 14 players selected in the first round of the NFL draft. In honor of his achievements, Donahue was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

Recognized by his peers and sports fans everywhere as one of the finest collegiate coaches in the nation, Donahue was named Coach of the Year by the Pac-10 conference in 1985. One reporter, failing to find anyone with a bad word to say about him, dubbed him “a saint in coach’s clothing.” He received the 1986 UCLA Award for Professional Achievement.

Donahue epitomizes the success story of the underdog. Considered a runt by football standards at 6’-190 lbs., he walked on at UCLA as a non-scholarship player, earned a starting role at defensive tackle, and helped to win an upset over Michigan State in the 1966 Rose Bowl. After graduating from UCLA, he asked Kansas Coach Pepper Rodgers for a non-paying job as his assistant to prove he had what it takes. Only a few years later, J.D. Morgan became convinced that he had, and named Donahue his head coach. The rest is football history.

Donahue’s career path took him to CBS Sports as a lead college football analyst from 1996 to 1998. In 1999, he was hired by Bill Walsh as the director of player personnel for the San Francisco 49ers, and in 2001 he was named the general manager of the team, a position he held for four years. Currently, Donahue works as a college football analyst for the NFL Network and for Fox Sports covering NFL games and the Bowl Championship Series.

Donahue has remained dedicated to UCLA long after his 1995 resignation as coach. He speaks to various groups within the UCLA community and has joined the UCLA Campaign Cabinet. In light of his longstanding commitment to the school, Chancellor Emeritus Charles Young M.A. ’57, Ph.D. ’60 confirms “There are few other individuals during the last 30 years who have been more of a representative of UCLA in the public arena.” Though athletic performance has defined Donahue’s history as a coach, Young points out Donahue’s strength where it counts most. “He always conducted himself … not only as a head football coach that epitomizes sportsmanship but also as a true university citizen at all times.”

Coach John Wooden acclaims Donahue’s devotion to the entire UCLA community, acclaiming, “I believe that a head coach, particularly at UCLA, should be judged by his or her peers within the university community-at-large as to whether the student-athletes with whom the coach was entrusted become not only excellent athletes but also, and more importantly, better students and better all-around individuals …There is no doubt in my mind that Terry Donahue deserves the recognition of having achieved that very ethereal form of success.”

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