Last weekend, a reunion of hundreds of runners honoring Haverford College track coach Tom Donnelly gathered at the college , writes Mike Jensen for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The reunion honored Donnelly’s 45th year at Haverford, and celebrated a 1980 Middle Atlantic Conference indoor title.

Donnelly has coached 172 All-Americans, including Marcus O’Sullivan and Sydney Maree, two of the greats in the history of the sport.

But he never lost sight of the rest.

“I’m not a great believer in so-called natural talent,’’ Donnelly noted. What he wants is a nice kid who really loves the sport and wants to be part of a close-knit team.

“If you have a kid who is like that, even if he’s the absolute slowest kid on the team, or has no jumping ability at all — a kid like that, with those three qualities, is going to contribute a huge amount to the team,’’ Donnelly said.

Mike McGrath was Donnelly’s assistant while going to law school at Villanova University.

He has stories of Donnelly not giving up on anybody, including him.

McGrath noted that the only bad runner for Donnelly is a selfish runner.

Read more about this track reunion at Haverford College here.

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