HAVERFORD, Pa. – Tom Donnelly will be inducted into the Delaware County Athletes Hall of Fame this weekend. Donnelly will be officially enshrined this Sunday, April 23 as one of 19 members of the 78th Anniversary Class.
The Delaware County Athletes Hall of Fame was founded in 1939 and is the first, oldest, and only unaffiliated organization to recognize Delaware County's all-time great men and women's and athletes, coaches, officials, and other sports enthusiasts.
Currently in his 42nd year as the head coach of the Haverford College men's cross country and track & field teams, Donnelly was a member of the 2014 United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Hall of Fame Class.
Starting his Haverford coaching career in the fall of 1975, Donnelly was named the 2010 USTFCCCA national coach of the year after leading the cross country team to Haverford's first-ever NCAA Team Championship. In that historic season, the Fords won both the Centennial Conference and Mideast Regional Championships. Haverford raced to the NCAA crown behind five All-America performances. Anders Hulleberg '11 won the individual title and was named the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's Division III National Athlete of the Year for the 2010 season.
In the two following years, Haverford finished second in 2011 and in a tie for second during the 2012 campaign. The Fords have made 24 consecutive trips to the national cross country championship race, totaling 34 team appearances since the 1978 season. The Fords have recorded top-10 finishes 18 different times in program history.
Haverford has won 28 of its last 32 conference championships and 20 of the last 28 NCAA Mideast Region titles in cross country. Since the inception of the Centennial Conference in 1993, the Fords are the only conference team to capture the national title in men's cross country.
Between the track & field and cross country seasons, Donnelly has taken Haverford to 75 Middle Atlantic and Centennial Conference championships, including 63 of the last 76 since 1993. His runners have earned 163 cross country and track & field All-American awards, including 27 individual NCAA championships and an NCAA championship relay team.
Donnelly's Haverford stars include Karl Paranya '97, who ran in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic trials in the 1,500 meters. Paranya, a member of the USTFCCCA Division III Athlete Hall of Fame, ran the first sub-4:00 mile (3:57.6) in NCAA Division III history in 1997. Donnelly also coached J.B. Haglund '02, who won four NCAA titles in his senior year at Haverford, and Seamus McElligott '91 and Anders Hulleberg '11 who were individual NCAA cross country champions. McElligott joined Paranya in the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame in 2013.