LORAN SMITH: Ray Donaldson’s longevity ranks at the top

Ray Donaldson was a prized recruit for Georgia out of East Rome High School in 1976. He would become an all-star performer with the Bulldogs and would play 17 years in the National Football league, the second most (for a non-specialist) of any former UGA player. Fran Tarkenton was an NFL quarterback for 18 seasons with the Vikings and Giants. (John Kasay stayed the longest—for 20 years as a kicker for the Seahawks, Panthers and Saints.)

Bud Grant, the long-time coach of the Minnesota Vikings, once said of Tarkenton: “A quarterback’s greatest ability is durability. Fran was as durable as I have ever coached.” Donaldson’s durability is even the more remarkable when you consider that few linemen stay healthy as long as he did with the Colts, Seahawks and the Cowboys. The average life of an NFL player is 3.5 years which confirms that Donaldson’s longevity ranks at the top of NFL players, especially lineman.

Now a high school coach in Indianapolis, I caught up with Donaldson last weekend when he served as honorary captain for the Georgia-Missouri game. Donaldson was a versatile player in high school as a linebacker, fullback and tight end. He also played basketball which confirms he had remarkable skills as an athlete. He was quick, he was blessed with uncommon agility, and he had the endurance to compete and excel for the grind of the long season and for a career.

At Georgia, he made All-Southeastern Conference and played in the East-West Shrine game and the Senior Bowl. In 2006, he was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. In 2010, the Rome Sports Hall of Fame elected him to membership.

While he got several mentions for All-America, Donaldson was not a first teamer, but that is probably due to the teams he played on at Georgia were teams which struggled. In 1977, the Bulldogs were 5-6, Dooley’s only losing team and were 6-5 in 1979, Donaldson’s senior year. The surprise team of 1978, the Junkyard Dawgs, went 9-2-1 and could have won the SEC title by beating Auburn at Auburn. The Bulldogs had to settle for a 22-22 tie.

Nobody remembers Ray’s Georgia story better than his coach Vince Dooley who has cogent recall of the 1977 season, Ray’s first year of eligibility. Donaldson was playing linebacker and doing well, very well for a sophomore. There was a serious problem on offense, however. It became difficult to find a center who could snap the ball fluidly. The offense was plagued with fumbles….primarily with the center-quarterback exchange.

Dooley asked Ray, during practice, to line up and make a snap. The coach saw immediately that Donaldson was made for the center position. “His very first snap,” Dooley remembers, “was perfect. He put the ball exactly where the quarterback needed it.”

A quarterback himself in college, Dooley felt that Donaldson was the answer to his problem. However, Donaldson had never played center in his life. It was the week of the Vanderbilt game in 1977, and the game was on the road in Nashville.

That was a concern for the coach. Starting a center who had never taken a snap in a game could carry high risk. He called his brother Bill Dooley, then the head coach at North Carolina and one of the best offensive line coaches in the country. Brother Bill had this immediate question. “Does Vanderbilt have a nose guard.” The answer was, “No,” which prompted the younger Dooley to recommend that if he were making the decision, he would start Donaldson. “If he is as good as you say he is,” he told Vince, “then I think you will be okay.”

It was nothing clairvoyant, just instincts and a feel for the game. Vince Dooley had those qualities and more as a head coach. Years later he remembered how accomplished Donaldson became as a player. “We never had a fumbled snap during the time he played for us. I always called him ‘my Southern Cal’ player. He was big and fast like the lineman I remember at USC. The Trojans always had the best looking linemen in football.

For the record, Georgia defeated Vanderbilt 24-13 in large part because the offense ran much smoother with Donaldson playing center. Not only could he snap the ball flawlessly, he was a powerful blocker (6-3, 235) who could clear a path for the Bulldog running backs.

“Interestingly,” Vince notes, “he would have been great if we had left him on defense. He would have been an outstanding linebacker and with his size, he, of course, could have played on the defensive line.

Donaldson became the first African American to start in the National Football League, playing 13 years with the Colts, two years with the Seahawks and two with the Cowboys. With the Cowboys, he earned a championship ring when Dallas defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-17, to win Super Bowl XXX.

Ray Donaldson was the beneficiary of a coach’s instinct which ended up with the former winning a Super Bowl ring.