The series consists of records documenting Jack Donohue's activities as coach of the St. Nicholas of Tolentine (1954-1958) and Power Memorial Academy (1959-1965) High Schools (New York City) and Holy Cross College (Worcester, Massachusetts, 1965-1972) basketball teams, the Canadian men's national basketball team (1972-1988) and the Canadian women's national basketball team (1974-1975). They also include photos and films relating to his summer basketball camp in New York State and the basketball clinics he was involved with throughout his coaching career, including the training camp he organized for North Korean basketball player, Michael Ri, in 1997.
The series includes photographs and films of the Power Memorial Academy High School basketball team coached by Donohue, which included Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Some photographs and programmes of the teams Donohue coached at Holy Cross University from 1965 to 1972 are also included.
The great majority of the photographs in the series document the activities of the Canadian men's national basketball teams coached by Donohue from 1972 to 1988 They include: team photos of various editions of the national team and of some of the players of the teams; photographs of the team at various international tournaments including the 1976, 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics, as well as the FIBA World Basketball Championships, the World University Games, the Pan Am Games and the Tournament of Americas; and images of games against other national teams, and club teams (foreign and Canadian). Some of the photographs are signed by members of the team. The series also includes a photo of the team representing Canada at the 1963 World Championship and photos of other university and national basketball teams.
The series includes sound recordings of team and coaches meetings of the Canadian men's basketball team during the 1984 Summer Olympics basketball tournament.
This series also consists of Jack Donohue's personal library of publications relating to basketball, coaching and sports management. A number of books are autographed and inscribed, by basketball greats such as Red Auerbach, Clair Bee, Wilt Chamberlain, Everett Dean, Jack Gardner, Nat Holman, Bob Knight, Al McGuire, John B. McLendon Jr., John Nucatola and Adolph Rupp, and former NHL all-star and coach Howie Meeker. Please note that the publications included in the Donohue library have been transferred to the Special Collections area of Library and Archives Canada.