Legendary

You go back to 2014 now, as the Saint Francis Cougars send their joy again into the Florida night. That's where all this begins. That's where something that never happens in the arc of a football coach's life -- something that is simply unheard of unless you are bucking for legendhood -- actually happened.

What happened was, a 63-year-old football coach not only didn't lose a step as his career presumably wound down. He gained one. Or perhaps three or four.

That coach's name is Kevin Donley, and, after a 6-5 season in 2014, he could have stepped aside to undiminished applause. The football program he started from scratch on a lovely little campus on the southwest side of Fort Wayne had become one of the NAIA's consistent powers, and it happened in a hurry. From 2-8 in their inaugural season, the Cougars jumped to 8-3 and a conference title the next fall. And then, for the next nine years, they won fewer than 10 games only once, playing in three national title games and dominating their conference.

And by 2014?

The Cougars were playing their home games on Kevin Donley Field. Its namesake had been coaching for 36 years, the last 16 at Saint Francis. He was an institution in Fort Wayne, revered as much for the way his program represented his university and his city -- winning always was a goal, but winning the right way was the goal -- as for the titles and success it piled up.

So, yeah, he could have walked away with the gold watch and more. Instead ...

Instead, he started over.

He took the program back to the basics, and now we can see the results: 38-2 across the last three seasons, a 22-game winning streak, and, of course, two straight NAIA national titles for the lovely little campus on the southwest side.

The Cougars got the second title last night, beating previously unbeaten Reinhardt (Ga.) 24-13 despite losing two of their top receivers during the game. No matter. They scored 24 points in eight minutes early, then turned it over to the defense, which shut down Reinhardt whenever it had to and forced it into uncharacteristic mistakes.

And over on the Saint Francis sideline stood Kevin Donley, watching his career go from superbly accomplished -- he's the NAIA's alltime wins leader -- to legendary. And now you realize what a disservice that observation might be, because maybe it was legendary all along.

All this begins in 2014, see. But where it really begins is long before that, on a bright winter's day in 1997, when Donley and a certain sportswriter who'd known him for two decades sat across from one another in a westside restaurant, and Donley laid out his vision for the Saint Francis program. Where it begins, perhaps, is on another afternoon two years later, on a football field in Canton, Ohio.

It was the fall of 1999, and the Saint Francis Cougars had just won their eighth game of the season. In only their second season of existence, in only their 20th game,  they'd beaten Walsh on the road to clinch the conference title and qualify for the NAIA playoffs.

"How do you even put this into words?" the certain sportswriter asked Kevin Donley.

Donley blinked. He blinked again. He's a quiet man publicly, not given to histrionics in his dealings with the media. But now his reserve faltered and the emotion of the moment overtook him.

"We won some big ballgames ...:" is all he could get out.

No one's ever won more.