Hall of Fame induction: 2012
Don is a 1961 graduate of Brandywine High School. After serving in the US Navy, he entered college at the age of 22. He attended West Chester State where he captained the track team his last two years, the Golden Era of West Chester track and field.
Competing as an intermediate hurdler, his team won the Pennsylvania State Colleges Championship in ‘68 and the MAC Championship in ‘69. In dual meets,
Don was undefeated in the 440 hurdles and ran a leg on the school’s record setting mile relay team. His team finished second in the NCAA Regional Division II Championships in ‘69 where he placed second in the intermediate hurdles. He is still second on the all-time performance list at West Chester.
Don went on to coach at Concord and Brandywine High Schools. While at Concord, his girls’ teams won three state championships (76, 77, and 82) and six BHC titles. Under Don’s tutelage, two future Olympic and Hall of Fame members, Terri Dendy and Vicki Huber Rudawsky, and a future two-time National Champion and Hall of Fame member, Mary Schilly Kniesly, were nurtured and developed. The 1982 team was one of the best ever assembled which included Dendy, Huber, and Melissa Grubb. This team finished first or second in fifteen out of eighteen events at the state meet. At Brandywine, his teams place second in the state meet four times and won five BHC titles.