A LRC visitor emailed us a great link. A 17-minute uncut video interview of the greatest coach the NCAA has ever had - John McDonnell.Please do yourself a favor and listen to it.http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext-news/?nxd_id=240727&shr=addthisNot only was he a winner but he was a class act and that comes across very well in the piece. Seems like the secret to his success was old fashioned hard work.Some great quotes from Johnny Mac:
Johnny Mac said:
When I was coaching, I was the drillmaster to myself. I left the house - never later than 6:30 in the morning - and never got home before 6:30 and that went on all year long except for two months in the summer.
Also it was striking as how little of an ego Johnny Mac had in comparison to some of the ego maniac coaches of today.
Johnny Mac said:And lastly, I definitely am not an ego-type person. I always like to stand back and let the athlete get the glory. They are the guys out there hurting and doing the job. It helped me as coach to (not have an ego).
He also said that he used the other schools hatred of Arkansas' success as a motivational tool, "The more we won. The more the other schools disliked us."
Johnny Mac said:
"I thought I was one of those guys that was snake bit- that couldn't win the big one. I have an old saying, 'Once we kicked the door down in '84, it seemed like it was open to us all the time.' We learned how to win. It's very hard to learn how to win, and after we got that habit, we won meets we shouldn't have."