Coaches Hall of Fame

Mike McDonald was both an outstanding baseball player and an exceptional coach. He began his journey in organized baseball at Pekin High School where he was the third baseman on the 1964 team that advanced to the state semifinals. After high school, he played outfield at Canton Community College (now Spoon River College) where he batted .455 and .320. He completed his college playing days at Bradley University where he was the third baseman on the Braves 1968 Missouri Valley Conference Championship Team.  After his college days, McDonald coached briefly as an assistant coach at Peoria Bergan High School and played in Peoria’s highly competitive Sunday Morning League, before signing a minor league contract with the St. Louis Cardinals organization. After two years he retired from professional baseball (AA level), but his days in baseball were far from over. He accepted a teaching position at Morton High School and was a baseball and football coach. “Coach Mac’s” tenure as Morton’s head baseball coach covered 24 years. His teams won 452 games, including ten 20+ win seasons, seven conference titles, four regional championships, two sectionals, and two state finals appearances. In 1984 he guided the Potters to an IHSA Class AA championship, and in 1994 Morton finished runner-up.  Following his career at Morton, Mike coached for six years at Illinois Central College as an assistant baseball coach and for two years at Eureka College as a head baseball coach. He was an associate scout with the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals and worked at several baseball camps. Mike always stressed the fundamentals that he learned from his professional days. He taught his players the “right way” to play the game. Mike is being inducted posthumously, having passed away in 2015.