The Early Years

Born on June 9, 1915 in Springfield, Ohio, James Allen (Jim) McDonald, was a college football and NFL player football player. He later pursued a career as a college football coach and athletics director.

Having grown up and attended high school in Springfield, McDonald stayed in his home state and attended Ohio State University.

During his time at Ohio State he played as halfback and quarterback for the Buckeyes for three seasons between 1935 and 1937.

A gifted athlete, McDonald was also a guard on the basketball team for a few years, captaining his side in his senior year.

After a successful college run, he was a second pick for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1938 NFL Draft although never actually played for the side.

Instead, he played for the Detroit Lions for two seasons in 1938 and 1939 as a running back.

During his professional career with the Lions he ran for 80 yards on 25 attempts, and caught 7 passes for 112 yards.

Coaching History & Timeline

Unlike other any other previous coach at the University of Tennessee, McDonald had NFL playing experience, however he surprisingly only began coaching over 15 years after finishing his time with the Detroit Lions.

He began his coaching career at the University of Tennessee in 1955, under Head Coach Bowden.

After several years, he was promoted to Head Coach for just one season in 1963.

There were high expectations being a former NFL player, however he was only able to produce a 5-5 record during his lone season.

The opening game against Richmond was promising, with the Volunteers going 34-6 at home in Knoxville.

However, this didn’t last as they suffered four back-to-back losses beginning with a narrow loss against Auburn on September 28 going 19-23. They then struggled to score a single point against Mississippi State in their next game before losing to Georgia Tech and No.9 at Alabama 7-23 and 0-35 respectively.

To make matters worse, the first three losses were at home at Neyland Stadium.

McDonald and his team were able to redeem themselves to win all but one of their last five matches starting with a great win against Chattanooga on October 6, going 49-7 at home.

The next match was an away game at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, which the Volunteers won without conceding a point. Unfortunately the team suffered the same fate in their next match with a loss against the University of Mississippi, losing 0-20.

On a more positive note, McDonald led his team to victory against two strong sides in the University of Kentucky and Vanderbilt University to end the season. The Volunteers produced two solid wins going 19-0 at Kentucky’s home ground with 35,000 people in the stands.

The Vanderbilt game has to be one of the highs of McDonald’s tenure with the Volunteers, not because of the amount of points scored, but because they were able to shutout one of the strongest teams in the region, going 14-0.

So whilst not a winning season, there were some wins for McDonald not just from a scorepoint view, but from the view of beating some excellent sides, and at their home grounds on several occasions.

Life After Coaching

McDonald was replaced as head coach by Doug Dickey in 1964, but continued to serve as athletics director before he formally retired.

He passed away on May 1, 1997 in Knoxville, Tennessee at the age of 81.