“If you love coaching, it gets in your blood and stays there.” So said “Boots” Donnelly, whose impressive twenty-season career as head football coach at Middle Tennessee State University came to an end when he resigned following the 1998 season.
Arriving at MTSU in 1979, his Blue Raider teams won three Ohio Valley Conference titles and tied for one. Nine of his players earned First-Team All-American honors, and eleven went on to play in the NFL. Donnelly was himself an outstanding athlete at Father Ryan High School in Nashville.
In 1960, his high school football exploits earned him Player of the Year honors. After college, Donnelly returned to his high school alma mater, where he was an assistant coach for eight years.
Becoming head coach in 1974, he led Ryan to a 21-1 record over two seasons and a Tennessee Class AAA title. Donnelly then served as an assistant at Vanderbilt before moving on to Austin Peay State University as head coach for two seasons, leading them to the only OVC football title in the school’s history. “Boots” Donnelly has received numerous awards, including OVC Coach of the Year four times.
He has always been a disciplinarian who expects the same work ethic from each member of his team. An ex-MTSU player said of him: “The things Donnelly teaches help you deal with adversity in work and life.” Perhaps the greatest legacy from a man who will always have coaching in his blood. In 2015, a statue of Donnelly was unveiled on the campus of MTSU.