One of former UCLA Football Coach Terry Donahue’s players in the 1970’s fondly remembers the coach and the man.
Donahue died recently at the age of 77, following a two-year battle with cancer.
Paul Burish of Manitowoc and a 1977 graduate of Lincoln High School returned punts and kicks and was a backup strong safety for the Bruins.
“One of the greatest things he had taught me was the work ethic you needed to have to be a Division-1 football player,” Paul said. “He was a great man with integrity and he made it a point to talk to everybody who was on the team.”
Burish played college football in 1977-’78 for UCLA. And, Paul said one of the things Donahue preached was that being on time was LATE, always be 15-minutes early.
That was a lesson he learned the hard way, as he recalled “Coming to my first meeting and in this entire meeting room was the whole team and I came walking in on time. Everyone turns around and looks at you. I go I guess I made a mistake here. Still to this day, I’m always 15-minutes early which doesn’t make my family always the happiest.”
With Burish having gone through 2-bouts of leukemia himself, he said “my heart goes out that much more knowing what a struggle Coach Donahue has gone through. And knowing him, being the personality that he is, he was a fighter all the way.”
