THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 16, 1995 TAG: 9505160431
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BARBARA BARKER, THE BERGEN RECORD
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
It started when Anne Donovan was a high school freshman. The doorbell at her Ridgewood, N.J., home would ring and there would be the neighbor, basketball in hand, a beseeching look in his eyes.
``He was always asking if Anne could come out and play,'' said Donovan's mother, Ann Matthews. ``I think the man was close to 40 years old.''
Donovan, 33, the former Old Dominion All-American and new East Carolina women's coach, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on Monday night, confirming what her neighbor in New Jersey and everyone in Hampton Roads knew long ago: She is one of the best ever to play the game.
The three-time Olympian entered the Hall in Springfield, Mass., with an elite group that included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Cheryl Miller, her former Olympic teammate.
``It's hard to articulate how it makes me feel,'' Donovan said. ``I think the Hall of Fame wraps all the highlights of my playing career together.''
Those highlights began at Paramus Catholic High School, where the 6-foot-8 Donovan scored 2,582 points, still a Bergen County girls record. She led the Paladins to a 112-4 record and two state titles.
In her four years at ODU (1979-83), she became the Lady Monarchs' all-time leader in scoring (2,719 points), rebounding (1,976) and blocked shots (801). She was named an All-American three times and was a member of the 1979-80 national championship team.
Her playing days ended when, after winning a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, she played a final season of pro ball in Italy.
The common thread was a love of the game; a single-minded determination to play it as long as she could and whenever she could, whether that meant a pickup basketball game in her backyard or moving to Japan to play professionally for five years.
Donovan's endurance - her insistence on making a living from playing the game instead of immediately going into coaching - is her greatest legacy.
She was 26 when she played at Seoul and was dubbed the ``grandmother'' of that U.S. Olympic team, her longevity in the sport an inspiration.
``What Anne always loved is being a part of a team,'' said Rose Battaglia, her coach at Paramus Catholic.
Donovan is the youngest of eight unusually tall, basketball-playing children. Her mother, who is 5-10, said she cannot recall her complaining about her height or wishing she were shorter.
Donovan, in fact, has always referred to her height as a blessing. Perhaps she was so used to being different that she wasn't afraid to take the chances she did at the end of her college career to continue to play the game she loved.
With no professional women's teams in the United States, Donovan found her options limited. In contrast, ODU classmate Mark West immediately signed a lucrative contract with the Phoenix Suns.
``I remember Mark goes right to the NBA and I went to Japan,'' Donovan said. ``I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. That's the way it is. I was just thankful to have someplace to go. A lot of college players didn't have anywhere to go.''
Donovan almost gave up during her first year in Japan, playing for Shizuoka, in an area where few spoke English. The Japanese training style required total submission to the team, and coaches regularly punched and kicked players when they made mistakes in practice.
Donovan had a clause in her contract that forbade her coach from hitting her, but she had trouble stomaching what was happening to her teammates.
``The most horrible thing, maybe even more horrible than the actual act, was that the women actually expected it,'' Donovan said. ``I know it was their society, but I felt it was something I had to try to change.''
Donovan repeatedly talked to her coach and the players. She said the coach eventually went from beating a player at least once a week to not doing it at all.
Sometimes, a player's greatest accomplishments cannot be measured in statistics. So after her work in Japan, Donovan returned to the United States and changed the image of older players in the Olympics.
She had been selected for two previous Olympic teams, but because of boycotts by the United States in 1980 and the Soviets in 1984, Donovan hadn't been able to win an untainted gold medal. In 1988, at age 26, she made the Olympic team, but she was hampered by a partially torn Achilles' tendon and spent most of her time on the bench.
Then came the gold-medal game against Yugoslavia.
The United States had beaten the Yugoslavs by 27 points earlier in round-robin play, but the gold-medal game was tied at 30 with 4:04 left in the first half. No one could stop Razija Mujanovic, the Yugoslavs' 6-7 center.
Donovan came off the bench to replace Katrina McClain, who had picked up her fourth foul.
Donovan quickly stole a pass and started a fast break to give the U.S. team a two-point lead. Then she virtually shut down Mujanovic. In Donovan's 10 minutes of play, the United States outscored the Yugoslavs, 21-8.
The U.S. team won, 77-70.
It was a perfect way to end her Olympic career. And there's still a hint of pride in Donovan's voice when she talks of it.
``For me it was a challenging time, personally,'' she said, recalling her time on the bench. ``To have a chance to contribute, to make a difference in the final game was very gratifying.''
Later this year, when Donovan assembles her East Carolina team for the first time, she'll share the lessons she learned and try to teach the benefits of hard work. The school has been at the bottom of the Colonial Athletic Association the last two seasons.
``Right now, I have a group of players that don't feel very good about themselves,'' Donovan said. ``With the ones that are going to be seniors, I got one year to change that. My goal is to make them feel a little bit better when they leave here.''
Donovan, who was an assistant coach in charge of recruiting at ODU when she took the East Carolina job, said today's college players are a different breed from the ones who played in her day. She attributes that to the growing popularity of the women's game and to Title IX, which greatly expanded opportunities for women.
``Players today are much more interested in what you can do for them. I was just happy not to have the burden of paying for a college education,'' Donovan said.
``Motivating players is probably my hardest challenge, because I was always so self-motivated.''
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB