At 6-foot-8, Anne Donovan couldn’t help but make an entrance, and the eyes of rival fan bases were on her when she walked into the Greensboro Coliseum for a Sweet 16 game between Old Dominion and Connecticut in 2008.
Donovan was already an icon of the sport by then — a Hall of Famer and pioneer of women’s basketball who would coach the U.S. Olympic team that summer.
Led by super freshman Maya Moore, the Huskies were a powerhouse that would advance to the Final Four. But Donovan wasn’t scouting that day. Rather, she was rooting.
She took a seat in the ODU section and began cheering the Lady Monarchs. Her Lady Monarchs.
For all she achieved afterward — winning Olympic gold as a player and coach, becoming the first woman to coach a WNBA team to a title, inspiring and mentoring a generation of players that followed her — Donovan, who died Wednesday at 56, remained a devoted daughter of ODU. And she was remembered that way here.
Along with Nancy Lieberman and Inge Nissen, Donovan helped put a young commuter school on the map, elevating its profile nationally while simultaneously lifting an entire sport.
Their impact is captured in an iconic photo that greeted fans at the former ODU Field House for years. The towering Donovan stood with hands on hips, in a line behind Lieberman and in front of Nissen.
They looked formidable, a portrait of intensity and athleticism – traits not often ascribed to women’s athletes of the time.
The old English-style lettering on Lieberman’s jersey said “Monarchs,” but the photo captured something bigger, Lieberman said Thursday.
“That picture was about women’s basketball,” she said by phone. “Old Dominion transcended the sport.
“Everyone looked up to ODU, because of the standard we set as winners and our crowd support. We were America’s team.”
Donovan was the final piece, joining the flashy Lieberman and the 6-5 Nissen on the 1980 national championship squad. Lieberman had thought of Nissen as a giant until she played with Donovan, who was a full three inches taller.
Donovan combined unheard-of height with skill and grace, changing the notion of what taller women could do on the court.
For players that came after her, she made it cool to be tall.
Off the court, she navigated the delicate task of being a 6-8 woman with aplomb. Always the center of attention in any room she entered, she somehow could turn the focus to others.
“A lot of Annie’s confidence came from her family,” Lieberman said. “Everybody in her family was tall, and she was taught to be proud.
“I cant’ think of a moment when Annie shied away from being 6-8. She accepted who she was. She had this quiet confidence about her.”
And an uncommon amount of modesty and empathy, friends said.
“She never wanted the attention,” said Kim Aston, who played at ODU when Donovan was an assistant coach in the late 1980s. “Just from her stature, all eyes would be on her, but when she talked to you, she’d make you feel like you were the only person in the room.”
The list of people Donovan mentored or impacted is long and includes current ODU coach Nikki McCray, who played for her on the U.S. Women’s National team and former coach Karen Barefoot.
When Barefoot began her coaching at the Apprentice School at age 23 in 1995, Donovan gave her a photo with the inscription: “Success will continue to be yours. Always, Anne Donovan.”
Now the coach at UNC Wilmington, Barefoot said Thursday the photo has been on her desk at every stop since. Donovan moved to Wilmington a couple years ago and often attended Seahawk games, Barefoot said.
“She was just one of those people you want to make so proud,” Barefoot said.
Lieberman was a peer, and the reason Donovan came to ODU from Paramus Catholic in New Jersey, where she was the nation’s top recruit.
“She was kind and quiet and hysterically funny,” Lieberman said. “A great teammate, a great friend and a winner at everything she did in life.”
Lieberman said she talked to Donovan not long ago, after taking a job coaching in the Big 3 — a men’s 3-on-3 league. She invited Donovan to come to a game in Atlanta.
Lieberman said she heard through mutual friends that Donovan looked good and was in great spirits last week at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction.
“Everybody I talked to said she was having fun,” Lieberman said. “She had, I guess, had some problems with an enlarged heart.
“Whenever we talked it was just like we’d spoken yesterday,” she said. “I’m devastated, just heartbroken. There was such love. It’s hard for me to express how I feel.”
