Donlon’s mom was driving force in a basketball family

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Bill Donlon was working behind the bar at Three Jolly Pigeons pub in New York City when he spotted an old acquaintance.

Maryann Martin and Donlon had grown up in the same neighborhood, and her father, a former basketball player at St. John’s, had coached Donlon on traveling basketball teams.

He re-introduced himself, and they chatted on that memorable day some four decades ago.

“From there,” Donlon said, “we built a relationship.”

The results of that relationship included a life in basketball, with a daughter, Heather, who was a star 3-point shooter at Fordham, and one son, Billy.

Billy Donlon intensely wanted to follow his father into coaching. Hoping to be around the best players, he joined an AAU team in the Cabrini Green housing project area of Chicago. His mother, hesitant at first, drove him faithfully to the tough neighborhood each time he had a practice or a game.

“She was concerned,” Heather said. “But she would do whatever she felt was best for us.”

For the first time since her death on Sept. 3 at age 62 after a nine-year battle with cancer, Maryann’s family shared their memories this week of the New York native who was part of a successful and driven basketball family.

The daughter of a longtime New York City homicide detective, Maryann played the sport in high school.

She supported her husband through several high school coaching positions and assistant coaching stops at Providence College and Northwestern University.

She also encouraged her three children — two basketball players and a diver in daughter Therese — to both work and join activities.

“We,” Heather said, “were not mall kids with idle time.”

The youngest child was the son who would go on to play college basketball at North Carolina-Wilmington, play professionally overseas, coach in four college programs and then, in April, become the head coach at Wright State.

One of Billy Donlon’s only regrets is that his mother didn’t get a chance to see him as a head coach in a college game.

“It’s like I told the players, who were great,” Billy Donlon said. “I said, ‘Here’s the deal, I’m 33 and I never get to call my mom again.’ That’s a hard thing for anybody.”

A life in basketball

Bill Donlon met Maryann through her father and brother.

Ed Martin was a former college player who became a police detective, but he loved the game so much that he formed a traveling team to play throughout New York City’s five boroughs. The team included Bill Donlon and Tom Martin, Maryann’s brother, who would later play basketball for the United States Naval Academy.

Bill Donlon was the son of Irish immigrants who lived in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens. Maryann was born in Manhattan, but later moved to the same neighborhood. She was younger, so while they were growing up, Bill Donlon knew Tom better than Maryann.

But after he finished his playing career at Virginia Commonwealth, Bill Donlon bumped into Maryann while he was tending bar. Several years later, they had a son and named him William Donlon III.

“Thank God my dad won that battle,” Donlon said. “My mom wanted to name me Graham.”

The family moved often as Bill Donlon accepted different coaching positions at different levels. While he was a college assistant coach, there were no recruiting restrictions, so Bill Donlon was traveling nearly all year.

During that time, Maryann Donlon drove her children to practice and watched games. She also disciplined.

“I remember once when Billy was in junior high, even then he was a great player,” Heather said. “He came out of a game and was kind of giving some attitude. My mom came out of the stands and told the coach to bench him for the rest of the game. She told him, ‘If I ever see you do that again, you won’t play again.’ ”

He continued playing through Glenbrook North High School, UNC-Wilmington and stops overseas. He coached at American University and St. Peter’s College before, in 2001, his former college assistant coach, Brad Brownell, became the head coach at UNC-Wilmington.

Brownell hired Donlon, who would be his assistant for eight seasons at Wilmington and Wright State. When Brownell left for Clemson last spring, WSU promoted Donlon.

Knowing that his mother couldn’t be at his introductory press conference, Donlon almost broke down at the podium.

Mrs. Donlon’s fight

The first diagnosis came almost nine years ago, and it was Stage 4 breast cancer. Doctors told Maryann’s family she likely had two years to live.

Instead, she battled the cancer into remission and continued supporting her family. Changes to her health came during the biggest change in Billy Donlon’s professional life. A few weeks before Donlon’s promotion, Maryann learned the cancer that had returned three years before had spread — first to her bones, then her spine and back, and finally into her brain.

“I got called off the road recruiting in July by her doctor,” Billy Donlon said. “He gave us the news she had six weeks to live.

“The first week of the six, she was pretty good. The second week, the third week ... you see how rapid the disease can really take a stranglehold. It’s devastating, that’s the only way I can put it.”

The first season

Billy Donlon wanted to support his mother privately.

Clayton Bates, whom Donlon hired as an assistant coach, lived with his family in Donlon’s home while their house was under construction. He saw Donlon’s dedication to his mother up close.

“If we did something with the team on a Friday, he would leave Friday night and come back Sunday or first thing Monday morning, and they didn’t even know he was gone,” Bates said. “It was not uncommon for him to come in at 3 or 4 in the morning from Chicago to go to a workout with the team that morning.”

The players, including fifth-year senior Vaughn Duggins, say Donlon kept the same demeanor in practice and on the court, despite the change in his personal life.

“He’s the same guy, very passionate, very intense, witty, just loves the game of basketball,” Duggins said. “I’m sure his mom is in the back of his mind at all times, and he’s thinking about her, but coach Donlon, that side of him hasn’t changed.”

There are some changes, though, including Billy Donlon’s first pair of glasses. For some time, he struggled to read road signs. Conceding he’s a “stubborn Irish guy” who didn’t want to go to the doctor, he was pulled in that direction in October while at The Mall at Fairfield Commons.

“I can hear my mom’s voice in my head, ‘Just go to the doctor,’ ” Donlon said. “So I go into the Lens Crafters, get the tests done, and I think I do great. Then they tell me I didn’t do so great. They put me in the machine to see what my prescription is, and I’m like, ‘Wow! I’ve been blind.’

“I wouldn’t have done that if I didn’t think of my mom.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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