INTERNATIONAL FLYERS Jim Paxson, Sr.
1955 Pan America Games in Mexico City Paxson played in all five games as the USA entry won the gold medal at the Pan Am Games, the championship of the Americas. While a standout player and a future NBAer himself, Paxson may be better remembered for being the father of two NBA greats -- former all-pro Jim (a UD grad himself) and multiple-world champion John.
Johnny Davis
1975 Pan America Games in Mexico City Davis was one of five players to average double figures in scoring as the USA entry won the Gold medal. A sure bet to become the first 2,000-point Flyer, Davis opted for the NBA after his junior season and left Don May’s record for Roosevelt Chapman. Quite a consolation, Davis claimed an NBA World Championship with the Portland Trail Blazers in what would have been his senior year.
Mike Sylvester
1980 Olympic Games in Moscow Sylvester was the lone American to win a medal in the boycotted Games as he represented Italy, which won a silver medal. Sylvester, who had attended Moeller High School in Cincinnati, held dual citizenship in the United States and Italy. Playing professionally in Italy at the time, he actually supported the boycott. “As a U.S. citizen, my duty was to boycott. As an Italian citizen, my duty was to play. So what was the answer? I was for the boycott. I was with old Jimmy (Carter) morally, but if I didn’t play, they might never have allowed me to play here (Italy) again.”
Don Donoher
1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles In 1986, Donoher was the head coach of the gold medal-winning U.S. team at the R. Williams Jones Cup in Taiwan. That team was paced by Duke’s Danny Ferry and Cal’s Kevin Johnson. It wasn’t Mick’s first international experience. In 1984 he was an assistant coach to Bobby Knight as the United States won the gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics. That team, led by Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin, went 8-0 and won by an average margin of 32 points. The assistant coaches along with Donoher were George Raveling and C.M. Newton.
Mike Sylvester, who scored 36 points as UD nearly upset UCLA in the 1974 NCAA Tournament, is the only Flyer to win an Olympic Medal as a player... and he didn’t do it with Team U.S.A.
Ed Young
1986 Jones Cup in Taiwan Young won the gold playing for Coach Donoher at the Jones Cup in 1986. “I imagine when his playing days are over,” Donoher said in the 1986-87 UD media guide. “Ed will look back upon the Jones Cup as one of his best basketball-related experiences. He had a chance to represent his country, got a glimpse of life in the Far East, got to play with some fine young guys from other universities and he also won a gold medal.”
Oliver Purnell
1999 World University Games in Palma de Mallorca, Spain 2001 Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece Purnell is the most experienced Flyer in international ball. Over the summer of 1999 he took USA Basketball to the World University Games and brought home the gold with the likes of Kenyon Martin and Michael Redd. He was an assistant on the 1996 gold medal-winning Men’s 22 and Under World Championship Qualifying Team in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1995 Purnell was an assistant on the gold-medal winning World University Games team in Fukuoka, Japan. In 2001, he was the assistant to Flip Saunders at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, striking gold yet again. In the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, he earned a bronze medal with USA Basketball as an assistant to Larry Brown.
Ed Young was a small center on the 1984 team that advanced to the NCAA West Regional Finals. Young met up with Patrick Ewing in the West Regional Final at Pauley Pavilion before joining Donoher on the gold-medal winning U.S. entry at the Jones Cup in Taiwan.
117