Over 20 years, he had more wins than any football coach in the school\u2019s history, including seven consecutive bowl championships.<\/b>
\nTerry Donahue, who became the face of football at U.C.L.A. as a player and coach, staying in the latter position for 20 years and leading the school to seven consecutive bowl-winning seasons in the 1980s, died on Sunday at his home in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 77. The cause was cancer, U.C.L.A. said. Donahue won more games than any other coach in the school\u2019s and the Pac-12 Conference\u2019s history, and he ended his career with a winning record against each of the conference\u2019s teams, including the Bruins\u2019 crosstown rival, the University of Southern California Trojans. Overall, he won 151 of the 233 games he coached, and 98 of those victories were in the Pac-10 (as the conference was known before adding two teams in 2011). His eighth and final win in a bowl came in the 1991 John Hancock Bowl. Donahue\u2019s streak of bowl victories included Rose Bowl wins in \u201983, \u201984 and \u201986. He was the first person to appear in the Rose Bowl as a player, an assistant coach and a coach. On the field, Donahue played in 1966 in U.C.L.A.\u2019s first Rose Bowl victory. The team earned the nickname \u201cGutty Little Bruins\u201d because nobody on the defensive line weighed more than 225 pounds. Donahue, a walk-on, weighed just 195 pounds. He brought the same overachieving spirit to his tenure as a coach. Some of U.C.L.A.\u2019s best players in the Donahue era, like the future Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden, came from regions far from California. The famed quarterback Troy Aikman transferred to U.C.L.A. from another college football program. In an article last year about how Donahue\u2019s successors have not measured up to the standard he set, The Los Angeles Times attributed Donahue\u2019s success to his being \u201ca pioneer in national recruiting,\u201d in part by having a scout \u201cscour the country for talent.\u201d N.F.L. teams chose 14 players from the Donahue era in the first round of professional drafts. In a 2011 interview with The Los Angeles Times, he discussed the level of commitment required to discover and woo young quarterbacks. \u201cYou need money, access to an aircraft if possible,\u201d he said. \u201cI went and got players from Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Texas, Oregon.\u201d A news conference where Donahue announced his retirement in 1995 became a spectacle. The Los Angeles Times said that a U.C.L.A. spokesman prepared two news releases in case Donahue changed his mind. As he began to explain his decision, hundreds of reporters and friends \u201cleaned forward at the same instant,\u201d The Times reported. \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m holding this press conference,\u201d Donahue said. \u201cWhat are you all doing here?\u201d But he did retire. Twenty-five years later, The Times would write that the U.C.L.A. football program had been \u201ctormented\u201d since Donahue\u2019s departure. Terrence Michael Donahue was born on June 24, 1944, in Los Angeles to Betty (Gantner) Donahue and Bill Donahue, a physician. He was a starting linebacker at his high school in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles, but he struggled to establish himself in college, failing to gain a steady position at San Jose State and Los Angeles Valley College before getting a tryout at U.C.L.A. in 1964. He was taken on as a reserve lineman and worked his way up to starter. \u201cTerry didn\u2019t have a lot of ability, but he had a lot of character, high intelligence and seldom made a mistake,\u201d Jerry Long, a former U.C.L.A. line coach, said. Donahue graduated from U.C.L.A. in 1967 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in history. He also earned a master\u2019s from the university in kinesiology in 1977. He got his start as a coach by asking a former mentor, Pepper Rodgers, to take him on as an unpaid assistant for the University of Kansas Jayhawks. When Rodgers became head coach at U.C.L.A., Donahue followed him. Rodgers\u2019s successor, Dick Vermeil, left to coach the Philadelphia Eagles in 1976, and Donahue took over, even though he was in his early 30s. After leaving U.C.L.A., he worked in the front office of the San Francisco 49ers from 1999 to 2005. Donahue\u2019s survivors include his wife of 52 years, Andrea (Sogas) Donahue; three daughters, Nicole, Michele and Jennifer; and 10 grandchildren. In 1976, Donahue\u2019s first season coaching U.C.L.A., the Bruins went 9-2-1. An article in Sports Illustrated said he \u201cmay be the best young coach in the country.\u201d Known to be relaxed and well tanned, Donahue was asked if he ever felt nervous. \u201cWe\u2019re prepared and we\u2019ve worked hard, so there\u2019s nothing to worry about,\u201d he told Sports Illustrated. \u201cNow if you\u2019ll excuse me, I\u2019m going to go throw up.\u201d<\/p>\n