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Alumni Spotlight
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Ursinus Alum Steve Donahue '84 Coaches Cornell to Sweet Sixteen
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3/22/2010
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Note: Read what Ursinus alumnus Kevin Callahan 1983, his former basketball teammate, and suitemate at Ursinus, writes in the Camden, N.J. Courier Post
Ursinus College alum Steve Donahue 1984 guided the Big Red of Cornell to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Sweet 16.
Donahue, in his tenth year as the Robert E. Gallagher ’44 Head Coach of Men’s Basketball, has led the team to 29-4 record. The Big Red will face Kentucky on Thursday night at the Carrier Dome on the campus of Syracuse University.
Donahue, who also served as an assistant at the University of Pennsylvania, was on the 1981 Ursinus College men’s basketball team that advanced to the NCAA Division III Semifinals. An economics major at Ursinus, he played basketball and baseball for the Bears, under coach Skip Werley, and helped the Bears advance in 1980 to the Final Four of the NCAA Division III tournament, and was captain his junior and senior years. Read more about Steve Donahue, and what made a difference for Cornell, in the Spring Ursinus Magazine, coming in late April.
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Ursinus Responding to Crisis in Haiti
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2/1/2010
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In just one week’s time in Haiti, Wesley R Harden III M.D.  (1971) has treated more than 1,200 patients and counting. The work has been ceaseless for Harden and several other volunteers who arrived last week in the devastated Caribbean country. Harden, a surgeon at Hanover General Hospital, responded to a request from the hospital for volunteers to travel to Haiti to help victims of the January 12th earthquake.
“My father immediately said he would go. He and my mother, Deborah, who has her masters in health care administration, took several planes and eventually arrived in Haiti,” says their son, Wesley R. Harden IV (2005). After about two days of being shuttled around the country, they were directed to a place where Harden could begin providing care.
“They are interacting with people, treating adults and children, and anyone in need of medical attention,” says Harden IV. “My father also had a chance to show some of the children a video on his iPod of the Disney/Pixar short film The Birds in an effort to make them laugh. That's what he does; he tries to distract people, even if just for a moment, and try and make them smile. He loves to share with people the things that make him laugh.” The Hardens are expected to return to the U.S. this week.
Also in Haiti is alumna, Judith D'Amico, M.D. MPH. D’Amico, who has lived in Haiti for the past 15 years, survived the earthquake and is working to help victims of the disaster. She reports from Pétion Ville, Haiti, that she is safe and that her organization has been helping with distributing goods and medicines to over 30 medical facilities around Port-au-Prince since the earthquake three weeks ago. D’Amico works for SCMS, Supply Chain Management Systems, a company that procures, stores, and distributes lab, medical supplies, and medicines for HIV positive individuals as part of the US Government's PEPFAR initiative. Her field is public health and community development.
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'80 Alumna elected Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey
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11/4/2009
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Kim McFadden Guadagno, Class of 1980 was elected Lieutenant Governor for the State of New Jersey in a historic election. She is the first ever Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey. See the Fall-Winter Ursinus Magazine which will feature Kim Guadagno.
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2008 Field Hockey Standout Becomes Head College Coach
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10/23/2009
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Jessica Lamina doesn’t believe in letting the ball, or life for that matter, come to her. She wants to go after it. As the starting goalie on the field hockey team for four seasons, she was named second-team All-America in 2005 and first team All-America in 2006. She was a crucial reason why Ursinus won the 2006 Division III national championship.
“Jess was one of the most intense players we’ve had,” says Gabe Moliken, Ursinus assistant and goalies’ coach,” said. “She was a very aggressive goalie. She wanted the ball — she wanted to be the one to make the save and clear the ball out of the circle.”
Jessica is now taking charge once again: She was named head field hockey coach at Sweet Briar College, an all women’s institution in Sweet Briar, VA. Like Ursinus, they play on the Division III level. They also compete in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.
“I can’t wait for this opportunity to be head coach,” Jessica said. “My whole coaching philosophy is based on what I learned at Ursinus. I want to be a teacher and help everybody learn, but I also want to win that game.”
Jessica spent a year as assistant coach at Gettysburg before landing the Sweet Briar job in March. The school feels lucky to have found her.
“She clearly understands Sweet Briar and what it’s going to take to move the team to the next level,” said Sweet Briar Athletic Director Kelly Morrison. “Jess is a great addition to the department.”
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Noonan to continue basketball career overseas
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9/16/2009
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 Ursinus College men’s basketball coach Kevin Small has announced that John Noonan (Havertown, Pa./Friends Select) has signed a contract to play professional basketball in Romania this season.
“We are excited for John to continue his playing career, ” said Small. “He had a great four years here at Ursinus and will continue to do great things overseas.”
“This is now the fifth player we have had continue their basketball career professionally.”
Noonan will be playing for CSU Brasov, located in Brasov, Romania. The team competes in the Balkan International Basketball League, which is comprised of 12 teams. Noonan will be playing with some members of the Romanian national team.
Brasov is located 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Bucharest, the capital city.
Noonan, who graduated in May with a degree in Business and Economics, was a Jostens Trophy finalist and an all-region selection by D3Hoops.com in his senior season. He finished the season by averaging 20.7 points per game. He shot a shade under 50 percent from the field (49.9 percent) and connected on a team-high 65 three pointers. He also was second on the team in rebounds at 5.4 per game. He started in all 25 games this season, and surpassed the 1,000 point mark in his career on January 13, 2009 against Swarthmore. He was also selected to the All-Area team by the Herb Good Club, which honors the best basketball players in the city of Philadelphia.
Noonan led the conference in scoring average and foul shooting percentage (83.8 percent)
He was the 16th first-team all-Centennial Conference selection from Ursinus, which is second all-time in league history.
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Dan Mullen '94 Named Mississippi St. Head Coach
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8/14/2009
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Dan Mullen grabbed a cowbell with a handle, one of Mississippi State University’s spirit props, in front of a few hundred fans at a morning pep rally here last month. The fans cheered wildly. Moments later, and with his distinctly un-Southern accent, he said he’d tell anyone that he was, indeed, from Starkville, Mississippi — this classic Southern small college town of 20,000.
He’s a long way from Ursinus College.
Mullen was named the new head football coach at Mississippi State on Dec. 10. It’s the first job as a head coach for Mullen, a native of Manchester, N.H. and a tight end on Ursinus teams from 1990 to 1993. He comes to MSU — and this $1.2 million a year job — from the University of Florida, where he ended his career on Jan. 8 as that team’s offensive coordinator with a second national championship in three seasons.
A day later, he was meeting with his new team in Starkville.
“Boy, my life has taken so many drastic turns,” Mullen said a few days after being hired. “You take my career in football aside, I’ve tried to live my life for the stories. For all the different experiences I’ve had in my life.”
Mullen certainly isn’t short of stories. Like the trip he took backpacking through Europe after his freshman year at Ursinus. How, as an assistant coach at Bowling Green in 2002, he courted a television sports anchor named Megan West. (She became his wife three years later.)
How his mother gave him a one-way plane ticket to Australia and a hundred-dollar bill upon his graduation from Ursinus. It was going to be a great trip — until he took an entry-level coaching job.
Fourteen years later, he accomplished a big-time goal — landing a head coaching job — at a school in the Southeastern Conference, largely regarded as the country’s toughest.
No doubt fueled by his association with Florida head coach Urban Meyer, Mullen became one of the hottest names in coaching circles. Meyer and Mullen first met in 1999, when Mullen was a graduate assistant at Notre Dame. Mullen served on Meyer’s staffs when Meyer became a head coach at Bowling Green in 2001, at Utah in 2003 and Florida in 2005.
Mullen spent much of his first month-plus focusing on recruiting and hiring assistant coaches, but no small amount was spent on meeting MSU fans.
Mullen’s enthusiasm — and his message of a high-powered spread offense — has been well-received by MSU fans who saw few wins and even fewer points in the previous five seasons under Sylvester Croom.
First-year athletic director Greg Byrne interviewed Mullen into the wee hours of the morning Dec. 10 in an Atlanta hotel.
A half-hour in, Byrne knew he had his man.
“He came across just as a really good person," Byrne said. "Easy demeanor, but you could also tell when he started talking about football, that a focus came in that you're looking for in your coach.”
Byrne noticed what many have since Mullen was hired: Though focused and football-driven as any coach, Mullen has a broad background and command of almost any topic.
And he’s seen quite a bit in his 36 years.
“I kind of take a bit of pride in all the different places I’ve lived and all my backgrounds,” Mullen said. “I think I’ve lived a very good life.”
Mississippi-based writer Kyle Veazey wrote this piece for Ursinus Magazine and it is reprinted from the winter 2009 magazine. Photo courtesy of Missippippi State AthleticMedia Realtions.
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