John McDonnell: The Most Successful Coach in NCAA History

By Andrew Maloney and John McDonnell

When John McDonnell began his coaching career at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville--choosing it over Norman, Oklahoma, because Fayetteville reminded him of his native Ireland--he could hardly have imagined that he would become the most successful coach in the history of American collegiate athletics. But, in thirty-six years at the university, he amassed a staggering résumé of accomplishments, including forty national championships (eleven cross country, nineteen indoor track, and ten outdoor track), the most by any coach in any sport in NCAA history. His teams at Arkansas won the triple crown (a championship in cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track in a single school year) a record five times. The Razorbacks also won eighty-three conference championships (thirty-eight in the Southwest Conference and forty-six in the Southeastern Conference), including thirty-four consecutive conference championships in cross country from 1974 to 2008. McDonnell coached 185 All-Americans, fifty-four individual national champions, and twenty-three Olympians. And from 1984 to 1995, his Razorback teams won twelve consecutive NCAA Indoor Track Championships, the longest streak of national titles by any school in any sport in NCAA history. This biography tells the story of the McDonnell's life and legacy, from his childhood growing up on a farm in 1940s County Mayo, Ireland, to his own running career, to the beginnings of his life as a coach, to all the great athletes he mentored along the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
• Release date: Apr 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781610755207

Andrew Maloney

ANDREW & CHRISTY MALONEY are the authors of Eight Weeks with No Water, a testimony of their second son’s miraculous birth, and Shelter from the Storm, Volume 1. Stemming from their upbringing in families that put the highest emphasis on a relationship with the Lord, they have a passion to share the Word of God to a hurting world and see His power change lives. They live in the crosstimbers area of North Texas with their two sons, Connor and Christian, and their daughter, Eliana.

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