James J. "Coach" McDonald

1934 - 2024

James J. "Coach" McDonald

James Joseph McDonald

Dad was born in Elmhurst (Queens) New York on April 24, 1934. In his determined way, he made it to 90 and died on April 30, 2024. He was the only child of James Martin Mc Donald and Helen Hornik Mc Donald. His father was a baseball player and that started Dad's love of sports. He spent all of his spare time playing basketball, baseball and a little football. During high school, he was a leader on his basketball team and was recruited by Harold Anderson to play at the collegiate level at BGSU. However, Dad didn't think he was ready for college. After working for a few months, he enlisted in the Army, where he served for two years. His athletic ability allowed him to serve in a non-combat capacity and he played and/or coached the Army basketball, baseball and football teams. One of the highlights was when the Army team almost beat a US professional team! Since his time in the Army was at the end of the Korean conflict, he was offered the opportunity to be discharged early to attend college. His scholarship offer to BGSU was still available.

While at BGSU, he met the love of his life, Nancy Anne Shenk (from St. Petersburg, Florida), during the Spring of his junior, her senior year. They were engaged by early summer and married on August 23, 1958. After a honeymoon to the Florida Keys, they returned to BGSU where he finished out his playing career. As our family grew, summer vacations were spent visiting New York and Florida so we could all spend time with our relatives.

After graduation, he began his coaching career. His first job was at Ottawa Hills High School. In addition to coaching basketball, he helped with baseball and football. His coaching associates and he formed a summer painting crew, where they earned extra money to support their budding families. After coaching at Ottawa Hills High School for 4 years, where Dad met many of his life-long friends, he moved to Sylvania Schools, where he coached basketball for 6 years.

Then his College Coaching years began. He was first hired as an assistant coach at his alma mater, BGSU, under Bob Conibear. After one year at BGSU, he was approached by Coach Bob Nichols to coach at the University of Toledo. The UT Rocket program flourished during his time there. Many more of his lifelong friendships developed while he was on the coaching staff at UT. In 1982 he was hired as the head coach at Kent State University. He turned the program around while at Kent State. And was honored to become member of the Kent State Athletic Hall of Fame (as well as the BGSU and Sylvania Schools Halls of Fame).

Ever the competitive person, in retirement, Dad took up tennis. When they moved to Florida, he joined a tennis team that became Senior Champions in Florida. He continued playing tennis when he and Mom moved to South Carolina. As our Mom's health declined, he saw less of the tennis court, but kept up with that sport as well as basketball. He took diligent care of Mom, who suffered with Alzheimer's Disease for over 10 years. Sadly, she preceded him in death on March 28, 2020.

When Dad's health started failing, we moved him back to Ohio. He was blessed to have so many former players, coaches, trainers and statisticians visit him regularly. He loved to tell stories of all the games he played in or coached and share those highlights with these friends. The family is so thankful for the loving attention he received from the visits.

During their almost 62 years of marriage, Mom and Dad raised 6 daughters, and had 16 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. They travelled after Dad retired and some of the places they visited included Hawaii, Spain, Australia, London, Paris and Monaco. They also started a family tradition of vacationing in Hilton Head Island, where many of the daughters still go.

Jim is survived by his 6 daughters: Kim Cryan (Larry), Catherine, Mary Helen Turner (Tom), Carol, Jill Sternburgh (Charlie) and Beth Meloy Bozich (John). He is also survived by 16 grandchildren: Jimmy, Rachel, Robert, Sara, Joe, Matt, Tanna, Tommy, Nancy, Jenny, Meagan, Emily, Evan, Madison, Conner and Ava. And 7 great grandchildren: Amon, Everly, Robel, Caleb, Ella, Wren and Cade.

Visitation will be on Thursday, May 9, 2024 at Coyle Funeral Home, 1770 S. Reynolds Rd. Toledo, Ohio from 3:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Sharing of Coach stories will begin at 6:30 p.m. A Funeral Mass and Military Honors will take place at St. Patrick of Heatherdowns Church on Friday, May 10, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. Interment will be private.

The family would like to thank Maumee Pointe and Hospice of Northwest Ohio for taking such good care of our dad as he made his final journey. Anyone wishing to make a memorial contribution are encouraged to support Hospice of Northwest Ohio, https://www.hospicenwo.org, Kent State University Men's Basketball, www.kentstatesports.com/supportmbb, University of Toledo Athletics utrockets.com/rocketfund, or BGSU Athletics falconfunded.bgsu.edu.

Please view Jim's video tribute and leave a condolence message for the family at CoyleFuneralHome.com.

www.coylefuneralhome.com