A Winner, by Leaps and Bounds

Who’s the most successful coach in NCAA history?

John Wooden and his 10 NCAA basketball championships at UCLA? Not even close.

Rod Dedeaux and his 11 College World Series baseball titles for USC? Forget it.

Dean Cromwell and his 12 track championships in the 1930s and ‘40s at USC? Nope.

The NCAA track and field championships begin Wednesday at Buffalo, N.Y. If the Arkansas men’s team, the favorite, wins it, it would be the 30th NCAA championship in three sports for the Razorbacks’ coach, John McDonnell.

Name your favorite NCAA sports dynasty, and it comes in second to McDonnell.

Here’s his dossier:

* 14 indoor NCAA track and field championships;

* Seven outdoor NCAA track and field championships;

* Eight NCAA cross-country championships;

* Since Arkansas won its first national title in 1984, McDonnell’s track-related teams have won 29 of a possible 42 NCAA championships;

* His teams have won “triple crowns” (NCAA cross-country, indoor and outdoor track titles in the same school year) four times;

* When Arkansas won the recent SEC outdoor track title, it was McDonnell’s 55th conference championship.

Arkansas sports information director Rick Schaeffer put it this way:

“I’ve been here 22 years and John’s teams have underachieved twice. They almost always do what they’re expected to do or do better.”

No one, not McDonnell himself nor even Frank Broyles, the athletic director who promoted him from cross-country coach to head track coach in 1977, could have foreseen this.

Soupy Sales might have.

Before he became a coach, McDonnell was a New York TV cameraman for Sales’ show. Then, in the late 1960s, he became a track star at Southwestern Louisiana.

When he became the Arkansas cross country coach in 1972, he was a high school coach near Fayetteville, Ark. After he had won four consecutive Southwest Conference championships, Broyles made him the track coach too.

McDonnell has won more team NCAA titles than anyone, in three sports. Al Scates, UCLA men’s volleyball coach, is the NCAA leader for one sport. He has won 17 national titles.

“When I promoted him, I thought he was a good coach who was very committed--someone who could improve our track program, which wasn’t very good,” Broyles recalled recently.

“But what he’s done since . . . it’s unbelievable.

“His results exceed those of anyone else who’s ever coached in the NCAA--in any sport.”

Of his 28 athletes who have won NCAA individual championships, McDonnell was asked to name his favorite.

“Teddy Mitchell,” he said, naming a distance runner from Florida who won one major race in his career--the NCAA 10,000-meter final in 1994.

“That was the greatest accomplishment in my athletic life, and I credit Coach McDonnell completely,” Mitchell said.

“We both knew I was ready for a good race that day. But he played mind games with me. An hour before the race he told me: ‘If you get 40th or better, you can get an All-American certificate.’

“I thought: ‘He thinks I can’t get 40th?’ I was kind of insulted. I got a little upset . . . and won the race.”

McDonnell: “Here was a kid who’d never placed higher than 124th in the NCAA cross-country meet, or higher than fourth in any SEC meet in track. Talent-wise, he was kind of ordinary.

“But he had the heart of a lion and was highly motivated. So he prepared himself and on that one day, he helped us win a national championship. He’s my all-time overachiever.”

Ryan Wilson was a California state high school cross-country champion from Agoura when McDonnell recruited him.

He recalled a flash of McDonnell’s temper several years ago, at the Penn Relays.

“He’d told me to sit on a pace in the 5,000 meters, to guarantee us points,” Wilson said.

“But early in the race I felt great and took the lead after two laps. I faded badly and finished eighth, and he was furious.

“Afterward, I started to tell him how I thought I felt good early in the race and he said: ‘It’s not your job to think! It’s my job to think!’

“He’s just a great coach. I felt he got maximum performance out of me, more than any other coach could have.”

McDonnell, 59, came to the United States from County Mayo, Ireland, in 1964. In 1969, the year he graduated from Southwestern Louisiana, he was granted U.S. citizenship.

Memories of County Mayo drew him to Fayetteville, he says.

“I liked Arkansas a lot, right off the bat,” he said.

“It looked a lot like Ireland to me, the green hills and the countryside.”

Question: Will Eugene, Ore., remind him of County Mayo too? Rumor has it Oregon is trying to hire McDonnell to replace retiring Bill Dellinger, 74.

“I’ll talk to them, but I’m quite happy at Arkansas,” is all McDonnell would say.

McDonnell, who owns and operates a 40-acre cattle ranch six miles from Fayetteville, says there is no secret to his success.

“Ninety percent of athletics success is between the ears,” he said.

“Personal relationships between coach and athlete are important. The key is finding that keyhole, and turning it on . . . getting into the athlete’s head and making him think: ‘I am the best.’ ”