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CELTIC-NATION
You
were born on March 21st, 1952 in Kewanee, Illinois. Please tell me a little
about your childhood, what led you to relocate in California, and some of the
things that spurred your interest in playing basketball.
GLENN McDONALD
 I
was born in Kewanee, but I pretty much moved right away. My mother married my
father for the second time – they got married, had an annulment, and then
remarried in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I guess I was there until I was eleven, and
then we moved back to Kewanee, Illinois. I was there until I was thirteen years
old, and during that time I started getting involved in athletics. I ran track,
and I played football, and I played a little basketball. That may sound
surprising, but I really didn’t play much basketball initially. I was on the
team. I wasn’t called on a lot in games. It wasn’t a real passion for me at
that time – I just loved sports in general, and I played because it was the
sport in season at the time. There was a lot of pickup basketball going on in
the neighborhood that I was l living in, so I’d always go to the courts outside
and play with the older guys. I just enjoyed playing, and enjoyed watching the
older guys. It really helped me to learn to play the game.
I was in
the eighth grade in 1965, and my mother told me that we were going to move
to California. I didn’t want to go because I had gotten involved with a lot
of friends, and as kid you don’t want to leave your school all of a sudden.
She explained that there was more opportunity for her in California, and at
the time is was just her, me, and my three sisters. She just felt that
there was more opportunity as far as work went, if we moved west. It was a
quick decision; we had relatives in California, whom she went to visit, and
all of a sudden she just decided she wanted to move out here. I told her
that I wanted to stay behind and live with my aunt, but she explained that I
needed to help raise my sisters. And then, not long after that, we’re
sitting in the living room, watching TV, and there is all of this coverage
of the Watts Riots. I just looked at her and said, ‘This is where you want
to take us – right into the middle of the Watts Riots?’ I didn’t want to go
[laughs]. But that’s what happened. We moved to California just as the
riots were coming to an end – I think they lasted six days. So, moving to
California was a big cultural change for me. My new school was
predominantly black, whereas the school I went to in Illinois was
predominantly white. It was just a whole different world for me.
CELTIC-NATION
You
played high school basketball for Jefferson High School in Los Angeles.
Please tell me about this period in your life.
GLENN McDONALD
I
rebelled against the move. I told my mother that I wasn’t going to play
organized sports of any kind, because she just knew that I would get
involved in athletics as soon as we settled into our new environment. My
attitude was, ‘You’re making me move and I don’t want to, so I’m not going
to play sports for you.’ So I guess you could say that I went through a
phase where I was trying to punish her.
We arrived
in California in ’65, and I think I was going through the ninth grade at
that time. Jefferson High School was tenth-through-twelfth, so I was still
a year away from all of that. And I stuck to my threat – for awhile, at
least. I would play pickup games in the neighborhood, but I wouldn’t go out
for any of the teams. And then one day during my sophomore year in high
school, which was my first year at Jefferson, I learned that there was going
to be tryouts for the basketball team. One of the kids on the varsity team
was a high school All-American, and he baited me into playing. He told me
that I wasn’t good enough to make the B team at Jefferson, and I was like,
‘What do you mean, I can’t make the B team? I’m better than most of the
players on your varsity team.’ He just kept it up, and the next thing you
know, there I was, trying to make the team [laughs]. I wanted to prove the
point that I could make the team, and that’s how I really go involved with
basketball.
CELTIC-NATION
Following
graduation, you accepted a scholarship to play basketball for Long Beach
State and a talented, young coach named Jerry Tarkanian. What was it like
to play for Jerry those first two seasons?
GLENN McDONALD
Awesome.
During those days you couldn’t play varsity ball right away – you had to
play on the freshman team – but it was still special just being involved. I
practiced with the freshman team, but I practiced with the varsity as well.
Just the knowledge Jerry had as a coach was unbelievable. Up to that point
I’d never been involved with someone who knew so much about the game. In
high school we were just a run-and-gun team, not a whole lot of
fundamentals, just playing basic defense and using our press. When I got to
Long Beach, Jerry showed me a lot more about the skills aspect of
basketball. He really worked with us on our fundamentals.
The
defensive schemes were so much different. As I said, in high school it was
either man-to-man or the press. Jerry believed in zones. He had a 1-2-2
zone that was just unbelievable. We had big, quick, athletic people in our
program, and with those types of players you would think we would play
man-to-man, but we ran a tremendous zone at that time. So I learned a lot
from Jerry. He was a great coach to play for, and he transformed me from a
scorer into a defensive specialist. That became my thing. At Long Beach, I
ended up being one of the top defensive players in the nation. It was a
great reputation to have. As a defensive specialist you go out and
challenge people, and you don’t like to be scored against. That was my
mindset. I didn’t like people scoring on me. And Jerry instilled that in
me. I learned that great defense was just as important as scoring baskets.
He was a good coach to be under. He was also a very funny man. People
reflect on his career now and think that he was pretty lenient, and back
then he could be that way at times, but he was still a disciplinarian.
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