Ed Donohue

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Ed Donohue, a native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., carved his niche in Luzerne County sports as head basketball coach at King’s College (1968-83), where he recorded 201 victories in his 15-year tenure. Following graduation from high school in 1947, he played semi-pro football in the Eastern League. He was a halfback with the Poughkeepsie Indians. He was MVP as a halfback of the N.Y.-N.J. Eastern Football League. Even today, he is still regarded as the best passer in the history of Poughkeepsie High School. In 1949, he was awarded a football scholarship to Niagara University. During the Korean War he served in the Air Force from 1950-53, he played in several military bowl games with the USAF Far East Team. In 1952, his club won the USAF world title at Pensacola in baseball. Also, he played for the USAF in the first Far Eastern Rice Bowl against Army, which was led by Arnold Galiffa. He scored the Air Force’s long TD. A graduate of Syracuse University, where he received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, Donohue launched his coaching career at Belfast Central School, Belfast, N.Y., from 1957 to 1959. In two seasons, his teams captured titles in baseball, basketball, and soccer. From 1959 to 1963, he coached baseball, football, and basketball at Our Lady of Lourdes High School, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He joined the Niagara University as assistant varsity and freshman basketball coach in 1963 and, in five years at the upper New York state institution, was credited with recruiting such stars as Calvin Murphy, Mike Brown, and Manny Leaks, all of whom later excelled in the National Basketball Association. He came to King’s College in 1968, and it was during his tenure that the Monarchs opened their Scandlon Field House with Notre Dame providing the opposition for the ceremonial opener. Donohue started the King’s Basketball Clinic for both boys and girls in 1969. His Monarchs won five Pocono Invitational Tournaments, an MAC champion-ship, as well as seven other tourneys while playing an imposing schedule that included Division I teams such as Notre Dame, Army, Villanova, Temple, Long Island Univ., Penn, St. Francis, Holy Cross, St. Joseph’s, Seton Hall, to name a few. Donohue, who has resided most of his life in Wilkes-Barre, with his wife Ruth, is active in the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Wilkes-Bane American Legion, and is a board member of LCTA, and is a member of Wyoming, Valley Country Club. He is President of Pro-Art, a company which he founded in the mid-eighties.