Glenn McDonald is having a moment.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 44 years since his standout basketball career at Long Beach State came to an end, and 42 years since he won an NBA championship with the Celtics. It\u2019s been 22 years since his tenure as the school\u2019s women\u2019s basketball coach wrapped up, and three months since he retired from his career as director of the university\u2019s Intramural Sports program.<\/p>\n
After almost a half century of entertaining fans and serving the community, the stars have aligned this year for McDonald, now 66. In November, the university made him just the fourth 49er basketball player to have his jersey retired, and in January he\u2019ll be inducted into the Long Beach Century Club Hall of Fame at its Jan. 28 Sports Night banquet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, it\u2019s one of those situations where you don\u2019t know why it\u2019s happening now,\u201d he said. \u201cTo get the jersey retirement and then all of a sudden they say I\u2019m going into the Century Club Hall of Fame, it\u2019s mind-blowing, really. It\u2019s nothing you ever expect. I\u2019m just so grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hall of Fame Player and Coach<\/strong><\/p>\n McDonald arrived at Long Beach State after being recruited by Jerry Tarkanian in 1971, who was his head coach for his first two seasons. The two were close enough that Tarkanian\u2019s widow came from Las Vegas in November to cheer for McDonald at his jersey retirement ceremony.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just grateful that Jerry recruited me to Long Beach,\u201d said McDonald at the ceremony. \u201cHe changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n The team was great in the early 70s. Under Tarkanian and then Lute Olsen (both coaches now in the Basketball Hall of Fame), Long Beach State went 75-9 during McDonald\u2019s four seasons, with consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearances in \u201872 and \u201873.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had a reputation for being the team\u2019s best defender, but worked hard developing a mid-range jumper as well,\u201d recalled longtime Press-Telegram sports editor Jim McCormack.<\/p>\n That jumper boosted McDonald to an NBA career, where his eight points in the third overtime of Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals\u2014regularly cited as one of the greatest games ever played\u2014helped the Celtics defeat the Phoenix Suns for the league championship. Throughout his years playing in the NBA and overseas, McDonald always knew where he\u2019d retire after his playing days were over.<\/p>\n \u201cComing from South Central LA, you come to Long Beach and it\u2019s a different culture,\u201d he said. \u201cYou meet so many different types of people. The city has adopted me. There\u2019s no way I\u2019m going any place except to visit. Even when I was overseas or in Boston, there was no way I wasn\u2019t coming back to Long Beach. This is my home.\u201d<\/p>\n After coming back, McDonald coached the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams at Long Beach State, including a four-year stint as head coach of the women\u2019s program. He was also an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Sparks. His 23-year tenure running the university’s intramural sports program helped keep him engaged on campus. But while he was successful as a coach, McDonald\u2019s impact off the court made an even bigger impact.<\/p>\n Hall of Fame mentor and father<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cGlenn and his wife Renee\u2019s home in Long Beach was always a sanctuary for anyone\u2014athletes, students, friends\u2014who needed a dose of life-affirming encouragement,\u201d said McCormack.<\/p>\n The McDonalds\u2019 kids both attended Poly, where Michael was a basketball player who went on to Stanford, and Alexis was a volleyball player who went on to Washington. Glenn and Renee (a Poly alum herself) helped to raise more than just their own children, however.<\/p>\n Kevin Cutler was one of the community members who pushed for the school to retire McDonald\u2019s jersey. His story underlines the importance of McDonald\u2019s service in the community. Cutler arrived in Long Beach in 1988 to play basketball for the 49ers.<\/p>\n \u201cMy background is I grew up in foster homes, boys’ home,\u201d said Cutler. \u201cMy relationship with [the McDonalds] goes beyond basketball. I call Glenn “Poppy” and I call Renee “Ma.” For all intents and purposes, they\u2019ve been better to me than my own parents.\u201d<\/p>\n Cutler stayed with the McDonalds at times while he was in college, babysitting Michael and Alexis when he could as a way of saying thank you to a couple who never asked for thanks. He said that when he needed tough love, Renee was always there to tell him the truth about whatever situation he was facing.<\/p>\n \u201cThen it was, \u2018Go in there and get these tacos, fix yourself a plate,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThat place was home for me and a lot of people who needed one. A lot of people who didn\u2019t have real homes of their own.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of the depth of the McDonalds\u2019 roots in Long Beach, those relationships didn\u2019t end when players would graduate the university.<\/p>\n \u201cGlenn is the godfather of my children,\u201d said Cutler. \u201cHe was there for the birth of my kids, and the death of one of my kids. He\u2019s the footsteps you want to walk in. You find someone that has a problem with Glenn McDonald, and I\u2019m going to question the person who said it.\u201d<\/p>\n McDonald seemed slightly bemused by this months-long celebration of his service, and said that\u2019s because he hasn\u2019t been doing work in the expectation of recognition.<\/p>\n \u201cMy pastor, Wayne Chaney, and his wife Myesha, they talk about doing things not for rewards or compensation but because it\u2019s something you enjoy doing,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cThe jersey and then the Century Club Hall of Fame, that shows me that I\u2019ve been appreciated. You never know how that comes or when it comes, but evidently people have watched me and feel I deserve those accolades.\u201d<\/p>\n McDonald\u2019s work continues into his retirement, of course. He\u2019s at Poly in the mornings working out Solomon and Ben Jones, two sophomores on the Jackrabbits\u2019 varsity team. Solomon said he\u2019d been working out with McDonald for a while before he found out about his history.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know for a long time that he had an NBA ring or any of that,\u201d said Jones, who learned more about his mentor when he attended the jersey retirement ceremony.<\/p>\n Cutler wasn\u2019t surprised to hear that McDonald is already back in a gym, finding more kids in need of guidance.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s Glenn,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s spent his entire life trying to help young people. It just comes natural to him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After almost a half century of entertaining fans and serving the community, the stars have aligned this year for McDonald, now 66.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":16418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-the562","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}