Former longtime Middle Tennessee State football coach and athletic director Boots Donnelly, the subject of the book "Boots Donnelly: How He'll Be Remembered," will attend the Southern Festival of Books presented by Vanderbilt University, Oct. 17-18 at Bicentennial Mall.
Donnelly's daughter, Bunny, who is the author, will be there. Both will sign copies of the memoir, which was published in August, during the Middle Tennessee Authors Circle, a collective of area authors, at their bookselling booth near the Tennessee State Museum.
Festival hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Oct. 17, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 18. Admission and parking are free.
in new book
The book goes beyond the game to tell the legendary coach’s life story “of perseverance, sacrifice, family, friendship, and faith,” Bunny Donnelly said.
“Writing this book has been a very personal journey. I’m not just the author — I’m Boots Donnelly’s daughter,” she said. “For years, I wanted to know more about Dad’s childhood, his football career, the people who influenced him, and the experiences that shaped the man I knew. Eventually, he agreed to sit down and share these stories with me, and I realized they were stories worth preserving, not just for our family, but for the many people whose lives he touched through football and beyond."
Boots Donnelly played football at Father Ryan and MTSU before his coaching career, which also included stops at Vanderbilt and Austin Peay. He posted a 133-80-1 record at MTSU from 1979 to 1998 and led the Blue Raiders to four Ohio Valley Conference championships and seven FCS playoff berths.
He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2013.
Donnelly served as MTSU's athletic director from 2000 to 2005 and then became CEO of Backfield in Motion, an organization dedicated to fostering academic and athletic abilities among inner-city youth.
A statue of Donnelly was unveiled on MTSU's campus in 2015.
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Former MTSU football coach Boots Donnelly to appear at book festival, sign memoir
