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Hall of Fame

Donnee L. Gray

  • Class
  • Induction
    1998
  • Sport(s)

Class of 1976, Legend
Sport: Basketball 

Athletic Accomplishments:

Donnee played for Charles County Community College(now part of the College of Southern Maryland) for two seasons;1972-73 and 1973-74. He led the team in assists both years and wasalso selected to the all-Maryland Junior College and all-Region 20teams both years. He transferred to St. Mary’s College in1974 and played his junior and senior years (1974-75 and 1975-76).Donnee also started the College’s Black Student Union.

Post-collegiateAccomplishments:

Donnee served as interim coach of theCollege’s women’s basketball team. He became one of thetop basketball officials in the country. He started refereeingcommunity youth association basketball games and then progressedthrough junior high and high school, to collegiate level games in1981. He started officiating Division III schools, thenDivi­sion II and finally Division I. Donnee has officiatedDivision I men’s basketball tourna­ment since 1988 and in1998 he was selected to officiate at his first Division Ichampion­ship game. Since then he has officiated at four FinalFour games. Donnee has worked in the Big East, Big Ten, Big Twelve,Conference USA, and Atlantic 10 conferences. He was selected as theCentral Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) basketballofficial of the year twice. He is founder and director of theMid-Atlantic College Basketball Officials Association (MACBOA),which provides basketball officials for junior colleges. Donneealso organizes and manages Mid-Atlantic professional refereedevelopment camps. He was inducted into the College of SouthernMaryland Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2007, he retired from the SenateLibrary, where he had worked since he was a student at St.Mary’s.

Thoughts on St. Mary’sCollege:

“I felt a part of everything at the College. Iwas supported by students and faculty, all the while getting a goodeducation. It was the right environment for me. Athletics is a hugepart of my life, and St. Mary’s was a major part of that. TheCollege was very generous to me—Coach Cole was a wonderfulperson. A lot of good stuff happened to me while I was at St.Mary’s—they allowed me to grow as a person.”

Thoughts about Officiating:

“The first reason I got involved with officiating was tostay involved in the game …second was to stay in shape, andthird was to make new friends and meet new people.”Don­nee has enjoyed officiating NCAA ball because he thinksthat “at the college level, the game still means something tothe players, fans and refs…It’s not like a business,like the NBA,…In college you still get goosebumps.”

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