Bob Donewald

Who is Bob Donewald?

Bob Donewald, Sr. is a retired American college basketball coach. He was the first coach to lead Illinois State University to the NCAA post-season national tournament, and he did so for three consecutive seasons. His 1983 team gave Illinois State its first Missouri Valley Conference basketball championship and his 1984 team captured Illinois State's first Division I NCAA Tournament victory.

Donewald was an assistant coach under longtime Indiana University coach Bobby Knight, and was a member of the Hoosiers staff in 1976 when Indiana went undefeated and won the national title. In 1978, Donewald was hired as the new head coach of the Illinois State Redbirds, replacing Gene Smithson. In Donewald's second season, the Redbirds qualified for the NIT's post-season tournament, and then, in 1983, the Redbirds entered March Madness for the first time in their history by winning the Missouri Valley Conference post-season tournament.

Donewald's Redbirds also qualified for the NCAA tournament the next two seasons. Donewald's success was parlayed into a student referendum to build a new arena to replace Horton Field House, in use from 1963-1988. Redbird Arena was approved, and was built mostly from student fees collected over the next twenty years. Donewald began to acquire a national reputation, and in 1982 turned down an opportunity to coach the Wisconsin Badgers.