Donald “Doc” Minnegan

Donald “Doc” Minnegan was a teacher, coach, physical education department chairman and director of athletics at Towson for more than four decades. He was inducted into the Towson Hall of Fame in 1963. Minnegan had an effect on athletes from the playground, establishing soccer clinics for thousands of Maryland’s youth, to the international level. He is the only American to publish an article in the English Football Association Yearbook (1956-57 on soccer theory), and he was appointed by the U.S. State Department to establish American Armed Forces Soccer in Paris (1945) and physical education training in Korea (1947). He was appointed as an alternate manager for the U.S. Olympic soccer team for the 1964 Tokyo Games.

Doc also initiated and promoted international soccer matches at the collegiate level, pitting his Tigers against teams from Cuba (1949) and Argentina (date unknown).

Doc’s soccer teams were very successful, winning a total of 156 games, and 66 of 77 between 1930 and 1936, including a school-record 34 straight. He also coached Towson to championships in baseball, basketball, track and swimming, as well as soccer. His overall record for 39 years was 231-137-34.

He was inducted into the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Springfield College Hall of Fame in 1969.

During his tenure as director of athletics, Doc established football as an intercollegiate sport at Towson in 1969. Towson’s football stadium bore his name from 1983 until 2002. In accordance with that tribute, the current playing surface remains Minnegan Field in his memory.

Born in DeKalb, Illinois, in 1902, he received his teaching degree from the Illinois State Teachers College (1923) and a bachelor’s degree from Springfield International YMCA College (1927). Minnegan went on to earn a master’s degree from New York University (1932) and his doctorate from George Washington University (1947).

He died in 2002, just two weeks shy of his 100th birthday.