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Over the years, a long list of Hall of Famers and Olympic gold medalists — huge names from years past in college sports — have been honored with an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award. It goes to former student-athletes who go on to achieve big success both in college and life in the 25 years after college.
This year, one of the six award winners was Ronda Jo Miller Donatucci, who played basketball and volleyball at Gallaudet University in D.C., making her the first deaf athlete to ever win such an award.
“It was a huge honor. I felt surprised. I also felt like time has been flying,” Donatucci said through an interpreter. “It’s already been 25 years, but I just feel honored to be recognized from the NCAA for the Silver Award. It brought back a lot of memories during my time playing for Gallaudet.”
While at Gallaudet, she helped lead the basketball and volleyball teams to NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Sweet 16 run in basketball. She later played in the National Women’s Basketball League and for a team in Denmark. Her playing career ended after she was cut by the Washington Mystics.
Today, she teaches and coaches at the Maryland School for the Deaf, having just moved back to the region after spending years teaching in her home state of Minnesota.
“I always try to talk about my experience as a deaf person and my experience as a student and as an athlete,” she said. “I want students to feel empowered. I do take my role as a role model very seriously, where students can look up to me and know that they can achieve great things, too.”
She credits her athletic endeavors in college with helping her adjust from living in a small town in Minnesota to the campus of Gallaudet — two worlds that couldn’t be more different.
“Sports kept me in school. I think staying all four years at Gallaudet, being committed to sports with a busy schedule, just kept me going,” Donatucci said. “Taking responsibility as a student-athlete is huge.”
Now, she feels a different set of responsibilities to her school and the deaf community.
“I want kids to see that deaf people can break barriers and do things and achieve in a world, just like hearing people can — that they are normal, just like them,” she said.
The other recipients of this year’s award, which was handed out in January in Nashville, Tennessee, included Danielle Donehew, Isaiah Kacyvenski, Matt Kuchar, Keiko Price and Kerri Walsh Jennings, a five-time gold medalist in beach volleyball.
Today, Donatucci’s jersey is retired and hangs in the rafters at Gallaudet. She recently took her students to a game there so they could see it.
“They saw my previous uniforms from Gallaudet hanging in the banners that have both had been retired … and students saw it and made the connection. They said, ‘Oh, I know who that is,'” Donatucci said. “So I think it’s nice for them, as a coach of just an elementary team here at Maryland, for them to be able to look up and have inspiring people around them. Because really, one of their jerseys could be next, next to mine.”
“You explain it in person, you explain it in the classroom, but actually being in the Gallaudet gym and seeing the uniform and making the connection, ‘oh, that’s your last name,’ and now you can’t have that number anymore, because that’s retired,” she continued. “Learning about the NCAA and what it takes to accomplish everything that we did in that time, it really was a real-world experience for them.”
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