Bob Donewald

Bob Donewald, Sr. (born May 29, 1942) is a retired American college basketball coach. He coached at South Bend St. Joseph's High School for eight seasons, from 1965–66 to 1972–73. He was the first coach to lead Illinois State University to the NCAA post-season national tournament, and he did so for three consecutive seasons. His 1982–83 squad gave Illinois State its first Missouri Valley Conference basketball championship and his 1983–84 team captured the university's first Division I NCAA Tournament victory.

Donewald was an assistant coach under Indiana University coach Bobby Knight,^[1] for four seasons (1974–75 to 1977–78) and was a member of the Hoosiers staff in 1976 when Indiana went undefeated and won the national title.^[2] In 1978, Donewald agreed to be the head coach position at Brown University but backed out twenty minutes before an introductory press conference^[3] at the university to announce the hiring. Rumor is that, while riding to the event, Donewald told Brown Athletic Director Robert A. Seiple he would walk to the airport.^[4] Three weeks later, Donewald was hired as the new head coach of the Illinois State Redbirds, replacing the departing Gene Smithson.

In Donewald's second season, the Redbirds qualified for the NIT's post-season tournament, and then, in 1983, the Redbirds entered March Madness for the first time in their history by winning the Missouri Valley Conference post-season tournament. Donewald's Redbirds also qualified for the NCAA tournament the next two seasons.^[5] Donewald began to acquire a national reputation,^{[citation needed]} and in 1982 turned down an opportunity to coach the Wisconsin Badgers.^[6] His success was parlayed into a student referendum to build a new arena to replace Horton Field House, in use from 1963 to 1988.^{[citation needed]} Redbird Arena was approved, and was built mostly from student fees collected over the next twenty years.

Donewald's ISU teams relied upon a slow moving game, similar to a four corners offense,^{[citation needed]}, and with the introduction of the shot clock in the mid-1980s, his strategies and his teams began to suffer. In 1989, after failing to replicate his earlier successes, Donewald was fired by ISU.^[7] He was immediately hired as the coach of Western Michigan University.

In 1992, Donewald was named Coach of the Year for the Mid-American Conference.^[8] In the 1997–98 season (his ninth season as head coach at WMU) the Broncos qualified for the NCAA tournament, where they advanced to the second round before being eliminated. But Donewald was unable to get the Broncos back to the NCAA again, and was fired in 2000.^[9]

Donewald today lives with his wife of over forty years in their Kalamazoo, Michigan home, where he does consulting work for several college and professional teams. He also works occasionally as a color analyst.^[10] His son, Bob Donewald, Jr., is currently an assistant coach at the University of Texas.