Now, before all the haters start hating, let me be the first to say that I think this is...well...not so great. Not that Terry D. doesn't deserve recognition, but you erect statues of Joe Paterno...until you find out they've protected child molesters. You erect statues of people like Woody Hayes punching a Clemson player, or Charles Lindbergh sucking Hitler's dick. You don't erect statues of a guy who had a 67% winning percentage. Yeah, two out of three ain't bad, but it's not great.
That said, Terry D. did do some really good things for UCLA. He started to recruit nationally to the extent the program hadn't been doing, and it paid off bigtime in the 1980s. While it's true that he couldn't beat RoboFat I, he did turn the tide on the USC series even if USC had retards coaching them; lesser coaches probably wouldn't have won a majority of those games because USC had, as usual, more talent. And Donahue was money in bowl games, at least in the 1980s. He hired good assistants, ran a clean program, and his former players have nothing but good things to say about him as a man as well as a coach. He was a great Bruin, and he was a great ambassador for UCLA.
As a coach he was far too conservative, and that's what prevented him from being a great coach. But he was a good coach, and from all accounts he was a really good guy who did win some big games, so he does deserve to be recognized. And if that fuckstick Barry Alvarez can have a STATUE OF HIMSELF INSIDE HIS OFFICE (WHILE HE'S STILL ATHLETIC DIRECTOR...WTF????), then I guess a statue of Terry D. ain't so horrible. I'm on board more with that than retiring #8 because of Aikman, but that ship sailed already.
When ucla was in FG range, TD would not allow any plays which might lose yardage, thus shrinking his play book, and the defense knew that.
ucla memorializes a middling football coach for NOT winning an NC. They build his memorial statue at a rented, city-owned stadium where the vast majority of students and alumni, nationally famous for not supporting their middling football team, will never see it. The entire fiasco embodies what ucla has become.
The man behind UCLA recruiting was Tommy Rees dad Bill Rees 1979-1994. He also worked for ''THEEE LIL SHANTY '' at ND.
He pretty much owned Oregon, usc, Cal, and UW.
kind of a joke to have one there of him.. and not have one of Howard
Jones or McKay.
couple of mis statements in your post....one...UCLA had massive talent a few years with Donahue...especially the teams with Aikman...those teams were loaded...watched UCLA hang one on Nebraska in the Rose Bowl until Donahue called off the dogs........2.) He had some recruits that you had to wonder how he got them into school...especially the kid that couldn't read or write...and there were a few more that were questionable...but you are right about his conservative nature with his offense...he hurt his program by playing it safe...Vermeil is the guy I think was the ral deal as a coach at UCLA ...too bad he left so quickly...he was building a powerhouse..
Always liked that Donahue coached way too conservative at ucla. seemed to play it safe.
Always seemed to find a way to give SC a tough game even when he was outmanned.
Is he worthy of a statue? He was 10 9 and 1 against USC as a head coach. And we all know that having a winning record against SC is really all that matters in westwood. So ya, He's statue worthy.
Just don't think it should be at the Rose Bowl. It's a place utla pays rent. Should be on ucla's campus. But then again he won the rose bowl as a player, assistant coach and was 3 and 1 as a head coach. That's impressive. sc
I told my Bruin friends when Donahuel left, "you are going to miss that guy." Most were happy he was leaving and I told them they would regret that. I think, for the most part, i was right.
Nicely done. Couldn’t agrre more with your comments. While he was the best recruiter ucla has ever had I don’t think he got as much out of that talent as he should have. The fact he could never win more than 10 games in any season is proof. Bit he always fielded competitive teams that could beat any team in the country on any given day. He certainly deserves special recognitio - just not sure how much.