Auburn Football Upon graduating college, Donahue became the tenth head coach of the
Auburn Tigers football team beginning in
1904, the same year
Vanderbilt hired
Dan McGugin. Former Auburn head coach
Billy Watkins led the effort to acquire Donahue. Contrasting with McGugin,
Fuzzy Woodruff wrote that Donahue was "a mouse-like little man with little to say, save when aroused, on which he was capable of utterances of great fire and fervor." His teams were led by his
7–2–2 defense. His coaching career saw immediate success, as his first team went undefeated at 5–0 including a defeat of rival Alabama which was the purpose for his hiring. Donahue's Auburn teams won six
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association titles, in 1904,
1908,
1910,
1913,
1914 and
1919. Donahue's 1913 and 1914 teams went undefeated, with the 1914 squad allowing zero points to be scored all year, and have been recognized as
national champions by various, retroactive selectors including Billingsley Report and the Howell Ratings. From 1913 into
1915, Auburn went 22 consecutive games without a loss. One source on the 1913 team reads "Coach Donahue loved the fullback dive and would run the play over and over again before sending the elusive Newell wide on a sweep." Donahue's
1920 team averaged a then-school record 36.9 points per game.
His last team was considered one of the best teams Auburn turned out in the first half of the 20th century. His .743 career winning percentage is the second highest in Auburn history, surpassing notable coaches including
John Heisman,
Ralph "Shug" Jordan,
Pat Dye,
Terry Bowden, and
Tommy Tuberville.
Athletic director and other sports Donahue also served as
athletic director,
basketball coach, baseball coach, track coach, and soccer coach while at Auburn.
Basketball In 1905, Donahue initiated the school's first official varsity basketball team, which went 3–1–1, including victories over
Georgia Tech and
Tulane, a two-point loss to the Columbus (Georgia) All-Stars, and a tie with the Birmingham Athletic Club. Under Donahue, basketball practice was a contact sport; a former player once lamented, "He never bothered calling fouls--said it slowed up the game."
Soccer In 1912, he coached Auburn's first soccer team.
LSU Donahue went on to become the seventeenth head football coach at
LSU in
1923 and had a 23–19–3 record over five seasons before retiring from coaching after the
1927 season. The
1924 team beat
Indiana. The 1927 team tied
Wallace Wade's
Alabama Crimson Tide. He also served briefly as the head coach of the
LSU Tigers baseball team (1925–1926), compiling a record of 15–15–3, and as the head
men's tennis coach at LSU (1946–1947), tallying a mark of 0–7. In 1944 and 1945, Donahue served as the head coach of the
LSU Tigers golf team.
Spring Hill Donahue served as the athletic director at
Spring Hill College from 1929 to 1936. In 1934, Donahue reentered the active coaching ranks, when he was hired as head coach and mentored his son, Mike, Jr. ==Death and legacy==