John Donahue (1972) - Basketball, Baseball

John Donahue grew up in Longview attending and exhibited his talent at basketball and baseball starting at the grade school level.  While attending R.A. Long he excelled at both sports and managed to get himself a nickname, “The Little Big Man”, little man, big talent.  John was a varsity basketball starter all three years of high school, he made all league first team his junior and senior years and was league MVP his senior year.  He was a league high scorer in his junior year making 247 points for a 48% scoring average.  John set a SWW high school high scoring record in 1972 of 52 points against Camas, (before the 3 point rule) and it still stands as a league record.  John played varsity baseball his junior and senior years of high school and made all league his senior year.  John was one of the highest scorers to come out of R.A. Long, he was considered a natural shooter with a very high percentage shot rate and usually did this with at least two taller players checking him.  He went on to play one year of basketball at Lower Columbia College but played several years of city league basketball.  John may have been shorter in stature than most basketball players but he left a very high mark for others to try to achieve.