JIM PETERS: McDonald was old school through and through

Blunt, demanding, no-nonsense.

Jim McDonald had a basketball coaching style you don't see much of in an age of political correctness.

"You knew exactly who he was and what you were going to get," Gary Hayes said. "He stuck by his guns. He didn't give in. You can still do it in today's era, but it was accepted much easier back then."

"Back then" was the 1970s, when McDonald and Hayes, two young coaches cut from the same tough cloth, came together at Kennedy-King Middle School in Gary. Hayes followed McDonald to Wirt High School, where the underdog Troopers went toe to toe for years with the big boys in Gary.

"I thought Mac was as good a fundamentalist as there was in the area," Hayes said. "His teams were so well-prepared. He took the talent he had and got the best out of it. Minimize turnovers, (play) solid defense, (be) mentally tough late in games. He was the most stubborn guy I've ever known and that's what made him a good coach. He was so competitive and his kids took on his personality."

Friends, coaches and former players said goodbye Monday to McDonald, who passed away last week. Robbie Hummel and Scott Martin, who starred at Valpo while McDonald was an assistant there, were among those in attendance.

"We'd been best friends for 35 years," Hayes said.

After leaving Wirt, McDonald spent three years at Chesterton, but his firm-handed approach didn't go over well, and he was forced out.

"He got a raw deal there," Jeff Nash said. "He took his way of coaching at Wirt and brought it over to Chesterton. We needed structure, discipline. Some guys could handle it, some couldn't."

McDonald took over at Chesterton in 1989, Nash's senior year.

"I remember the first day, I asked him, 'What do I have to do to make the team?'" Nash said. "He said, work hard and never settle for mediocrity."

Twenty years later, those words still ring true with Nash, an advertising executive with WCIU, Channel 26, in Chicago.

"I took that one line and carried it over into my life," Nash said. "I was only with him one year, but I don't know what I'd be doing if he wasn't a part of my life."

Not long after things went sour with Chesterton, McDonald, a heavy smoker, developed lung cancer and had to have most of a lung removed.

"It was kind of a dark time for him," then Valpo coach Bob Punter said.

McDonald showed up at Viking Gym one day, asking Punter if he could scout for him. Punter jumped at the chance.

"Losing the Chesterton job hurt him, but he picked himself back up," Hayes said. "He had such a strong personality, it was hard for him to be an assistant coach. Believe me, I know."

A year later, McDonald asked to be more involved. Again, Punter couldn't say yes fast enough. McDonald was on staff for 14 years, working specifically with the post players. He retired when Punter retired from Valpo in 2007.

"I think he had an actual salary twice," Punter said. "He was working basically for nothing except a couple shrimp cocktails after the game. Here's a guy who probably knew more about the game than I did, but he never let on like he did. If he saw something, he'd wait 'til after practice to point it out. He never did it in front of the guys."

The two remained golfing buddies in recent years, when McDonald's health went into decline.

"One thing I admired about him was he never said, 'Why me?'" Punter said. "He never complained about his condition. He was like, this is the hand I've been dealt, I've got to play it.'"

Just like he did as a coach.

This column is solely the writer's opinion. Reach him at jim.peters@nwi.com.