Donahue, UCLA Football Coach, to Quit for TV Job

Ending a UCLA football career that he began as a non-scholarship player in 1964, Terry Donahue retired Monday as the Bruins’ coach to accept a job as a television color commentator.

Donahue, 51, had coached UCLA for 20 seasons, compiling a 151-73-8 record that included a Pacific 10 Conference-record 98 victories. He will continue to coach through the Aloha Bowl game against Kansas on Christmas Day, his 13th bowl berth, then will join CBS on the telecasts of the Sun Bowl in El Paso on Dec. 29 and the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., on Jan. 2.

Next season, he will be part of a network team that will televise weekly games involving schools from the Big East and Southeastern conferences.

He will retain his ties with the university by working in the office of Chancellor Charles Young, who said Donahue’s duties could include alumni relations and fund-raising.

Donahue said he ended his “wild and wonderful ride” with the Bruins because “I just think it’s time to change the guard.

“When you are at a university or any job as long as I’ve been, it’s time to do something else. . . . I just have a gut feeling that this is the time. This is the right thing to do, and this is the time.”

Donahue appeared composed before a news conference to announce his decision, wearing a Rose Bowl ring from his senior season as a player, in 1966, and a Rose Bowl watch from 1986, the last time the Bruins won the game.

They have played in the Rose Bowl once since, losing to Wisconsin in the 1994 game, 21-16.

Donahue began his career as a coach at Kansas, working on the staff of Pepper Rodgers, then returned to UCLA as an assistant when Rodgers became the Bruin coach in 1970. Donahue worked as an assistant under Rodgers at UCLA for three seasons and under Dick Vermeil for two more before becoming the Bruins’ 13th coach when he was 32.

Under Donahue, UCLA won four Pac-10 championships and tied for another, and won eight consecutive bowl games.

He had a winning record against every Pac-10 school and beat USC in each of his last five seasons as UCLA’s coach.

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