Not that you’d ever hear him say anything about that. Donoher doesn’t like to draw attention to himself. Although he’s been coaxed to be a spokesperson for the effort to make the NCAA tournament’s First Four an annual event in Dayton, he’s more comfortable out of the spotlight.
There’s no better example of that than where he chooses to sit at UD basketball games. As the Flyers’ winningest coach ever — after playing for the Flyers in the early 1950s, he coached them for 25 years, won 437 games and took them to 15 postseason tournaments, including the 1967 NCAA title game and the 1968 NIT crown — he could sit wherever he wants.
He does have six tickets to each game — two behind a basket and two others in the lower arena — but he chooses to sit halfway up in the 300 section against the wall. He likes the anonymity that comes with the seat.
Before that, he used to sit in an old air-handling room high above the arena. The place was dark. It had just a slit of window to look out on the court and when the blowers turned on, you couldn’t hear a thing through the racket.
“It was the poor man’s skybox,” Donoher laughed. “It was great.”
Before I get into our conversation from the other day, here’s one other side note. Back when Donoher was playing high school ball for Toledo Central Catholic, his team would make semi-annual treks down to my little hometown — Ottoville — for a game to go along with another at Delphos St. John’s, just seven miles away.
My granddad, L.W. Heckman, coached the Ottoville Big Green, who over the years held their own with the Toledo team. But that wasn’t the case on Dec. 4, 1948. Toledo thumped Ottoville, 65-40.
My mom, Agnes Archdeacon, was Ottoville’s scorekeeper. She’s gone now and so is my granddad, but I have the official scorebook from that season. And from that Dec. 4 entry, there is Donoher — No. 10 for Central Catholic — who scored eight points and “hacked” our guys for two fouls.
In the past I’ve talked to him about those days, but the other afternoon when we sat down — ostensibly to hype the First Four — I soon pushed the conversation toward UD hoops past and present.
Here are some things he had to say:
On this year’s team and Archie Miller: “They have over-achieved. If you stop to think what they lost from last year and to have Archie come in here brand spanking new — his first job — he really has them playing together. They’re a fun bunch to watch.
“(Matt) Kavanaugh has really come on. I’m impressed by his footwork in the post … And Kevin Dillard has really brought something to this team. I knew people who had been trying to recruit him (after he left Southern Illinois) and they said the (fans) in Dayton don’t know what they’re getting and just how good this guy is.”
On his team’s run to the NCAA title game in 1967: “Too bad the games were on back-to-back nights and we couldn’t really enjoy it like you could now. We were a huge flop in that national championship game (losing to UCLA) but that win against North Carolina — that was Dean Smith’s first Final Four — that’s a nice memory to have.”
On UD Arena, which has hosted more NCAA tournament games than any venue: “It was built on a limited budget. Originally, it was supposed to be a roundhouse. I have the pictures from the original architect — Knowlton Brothers and (Dutch Knowlton) was one of the original owners of the Bengals.
“At that time a lot of roundhouses were going up, but when it came in at about twice what the budget called for, they went to local architects and rather than go straight up they came up with this underground concept and it cut way down on the architectural steel.
“(Athletics director) Tom Frericks was scared to death about it. The seats were set back. It wasn’t like St. John Arena where you could have a balcony. But the beauty of the place is that if you took the baselines and painted them all the way up top the top of the arena, 80 percent of the fans have a courtside seat. And the 20 percent on the sides are close. They’re some of the best seats in the house.
“After our run in the ’84 tournament, that loosened up some funds and they were able to excavate down here some more and build a place to store a hardwood floor. Before that there was no room, that’s why we had the Tartan floor. You couldn’t have a permanent hardwood floor in here because it would warp with the water that came through here.
“Now both Ted Kissell and Tim Wabler (UD’s most recent ADs) have made great additions on their watch. The graphics around this place make it like a museum. I went around to a million of these venues when I did my thing with the Cavaliers (as a college scout) and the graphics here are second to none.
“And now they’ve added the video boards — the place just keeps getting better.”
On playing on the 1952 team that was in both the NIT and NCAA tournaments: “Tom Blackburn was just an NIT guy. We played in the NIT and then came back home and got ready to play the next Friday and Saturday in the NCAA. It was our first time in that tournament and we were matched against Illinois. There were just 16 teams in the whole deal, so if we won the two games at our regional in Chicago, we were in the Final Four, which was just a couple of days later in Seattle.
“They had a little get-together before the games and though it’s hearsay, it became gospel with us. Supposedly the representative of the Big Ten who was on the tournament committee said he wanted to take the opportunity to wish Illinois well in the Final Four in Seattle.
“Blackburn and the Duquesne coach were sitting together and Tom said, 'Well, it looks like we got a fat chance.’ And, sure enough, they called enough fouls on us in our loss to Illinois that we still hold the record for the most fouls on a team in an NCAA tournament game.”
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