On the plaque: Ivy League Player of the Year in 1977-78 and Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Year in 1976-77, he was Penn's fifth three-time first-team All-Ivy honoree and the third three-time first-team All-Big 5 selection. He graduated as Penn's all-time leader in field-goal percentage and second all-time in points, scoring average and field goals made. Led the Quakers to 1976-77 Big 5 and 1977-78 Ivy League titles, and still holds the Penn record for points in an NCAA Tournament game (37 vs. St. Bonaventure in 1978). Inducted into Big 5 Hall of Fame in 1985, honored as an Ivy League Legend in 2018.
 
Four decades after he played his last basketball game for the University of Pennsylvania, Keven McDonald is still the fourth-leading scorer in program history with 1,644 points. The next two names above him on that all-time list both played one more season than his three. Only two Quakers ever averaged more per-game in a season. And only the legendary Ernie Beck, who played a quarter-century before him, has a higher career average.
 
So why did it take this long for the 6-5 small forward to get into the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame?
 
"All I know is this," said Bob Weinhauer, who coached McDonald when he was a senior (1977-78) after moving up from top assistant when Chuck Daly left just before the start of the season to take a job with the 76ers. "He ALWAYS gets mentioned by the basketball people at Penn. I can't talk for outsiders. So my reaction is, he deserved it five years ago. He's definitely one of the top players Penn's ever had.
 
"He was basically one of my first recruits. We recruited as a staff, but I was more in the charge of the New York-North Jersey area. I was probably up there (at Seton Hall Prep) 10-12 times when he was a senior. So I knew him inside-out. I remember him playing in an outdoor all-star game in the summer, and he outscored Moses Malone. He was a scoring machine. He had that mentality."
 
McDonald, who spent some time living in other parts of the country, is an attorney who works near where he grew up. He made it into the Big 5 Hall in 1985. And recently made it into the Ivy League equivalent, The Legends. He was Rookie of the Year, a three-time first-team all-league and Player of the Year in his final season. He was also a three-time all-Big 5 selection and its Player of the Year as a junior. So …
 
"It's funny," McDonald said over the phone, allowing himself a slight chuckle. "I guess over the years I've done this and that, so my first reaction when I got the call was, 'Didn't I already do this?' I might have confused one with the other. In my mind, a lot of things happened a lot earlier in my life. Penn has such a rich sports history. And they didn't even have this until later in the 1990s. But I'm an older man. Once the fog cleared and I realized this was something new, it's obviously such an honor to be a part of that (legacy)."
 
Maybe part of the reason McDonald tends to fly under the radar a bit is that Penn had so many great teams and players in the early 1970s. And then the Quakers made it to the Final Four the season after he left. Of course almost every player on that team credits guys like him, Tom Crowley and Stanley Green with helping them get that far by the examples they instilled in their group. And folks often forget that the '78 team lost by four points in the Sweet 16 to eventual national runner-up Duke (and freshman Gene Banks, from West Philly High, who almost went to Penn), in a game they led much of the way. Duke, by the way, beat Villanova in the Regional final.
 
"Some of those accomplishments do tend to kind of overshadow other things that happened," McDonald duly noted. "So yes, I would have to admit we might get overlooked. Basketball purists might tell you that the '78 roster from top to bottom was better than the '79 team. But what they did was amazing.
 
"Yet for a bad few bounces of the ball and a few late calls that didn't go our way, we could have certainly gone to the Final Four as well. But we came up a little short. It came down to a four-minute period at the end. I think that just made the '79 team that much hungrier. Maybe we would have gone to back-to-back Final Fours. Who knows?"
 
"It was a different time back then."
 
McDonald chose Penn over Princeton. He also considered Navy. So academics factored heavily into his process. If there had been a Big East at the time, he might have given more thought to Seton Hall. Or perhaps even St. John's. But he pretty much made up his mind on his recruiting trip.
 
"I wanted to go somewhere that had a tradition," he stressed. "Ultimately, it came down to what I thought was compatability. I knew that whatever happened, the calendar eventually catches up with all of us. I wanted a degree that was highly marketable.
 
"The Big 5 didn't mean as much where I was from as it did in the South Jersey area, but I knew enough. I knew Villanova had Howard Porter, and LaSalle had Kenny Durrett. And I remember watching Temple win the NIT in '69. Back in the day, the NIT was just big (as the NCAA), especially in this part of the country.
 
"My freshman year (when freshmen were still ineligible to play for the varsity), Penn played La Salle when Joe Bryant was a junior. In January. And La Salle was ranked (11th) and Penn had just been in the Top 10 (and would be again later). The next year there was a bit of a dip, and there were some stories about 'Is the Big 5 over? What's going on here?' But, that kind of went away by the time I left."
 
And that's where circumstances got in the way of McDonald's journey, a detour that took him awhile to come to grips with.
 
He was taken in the second round of the NBA draft by Seattle. The SuperSonics, which had just lost in the Finals to Washington in seven games, didn't keep a rookie on their roster that year. They wound up going back to the Finals and this time they beat the Bullets. McDonald was the last cut. He'd almost been selected by the New Jersey Nets in the first round. But they opted for another small forward, San Francisco junior Winford Boynes, at No. 13. That was the only pick they had. Boynes played three seasons in the league before heading overseas. McDonald also played briefly in Europe before moving on to the real world.
 
 "The pro thing was just an example of how a situation can conspire with you or against you," McDonald related. "I heard that New Jersey's choice literally came down to a virtual coin toss. You think about how your life might have been different. That was my hometown team. I was 22. I'd wanted to play pro ball since I was eight years old. But your trajectory can change just like that.
 
"I always joke with people that I just missed out on a Final Four and an NBA championship. In the same year. Once you realize that there's less and less of a chance that you can fulfill your dream, it's time to go out and find another."
 
That was his reality. And it was painful. Yet as he became a man he learned from it, and it helped shape him. He continues to carry that unique perspective with him, wherever he goes. He didn't allow it to defeat him.
 
"Who has the foresight to know, when you're that young, that one day, regardless of how far I go with basketball, it's going to be over and there has to be something else," McDonald reasoned. "Luckily, I had people behind me who reinforced that. I knew that having Penn on my resume was going to carry a lot of weight. Without a doubt, there are jobs I've had where I know the only reason I was granted an interview was Penn.
 
"But I can tell you it wasn't a very easy transition. It would have been easier, if I felt that I just didn't measure up. But I was enough of a sportsman to know when it's not your day. Still, to go to (training) camp, and do as well as I did, I knew I had the talent to play at that level. That's what made it hard (to accept).
 
"Honestly, for several years I could not watch a game. Guys I was better than were getting contracts. And I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do. Even with a degree it's not easy. That's one of the reasons I went to Europe. After the experience in Seattle, you're trying to explain to people what happened, and the assumption is you just weren't good enough. I had to get away from all that."
 
It's something that will never go away. But time does, well, ease the whatevers. He's a success, by any measurement. And nothing can take that away.
 
"I have a lot to be grateful for," he said. "I think about it far less now. But there will always be that what-if. Even though I've reconciled it within myself. The highlight isn't always making the NBA, but what you did after that. I hope kids coming up now can see that. There are (great players) out there that you'll never see play. And countless Beyonces that you'll never hear sing. That's just the way it is. You have to have a Plan B.
 
"Too many that don't make it lead lives of quiet desperation. They're tragic stories, of a life unfulfilled. They just can't find their way. And I can understand, believe me. I never thought I wouldn't get past it. But it's like any other thing that's taken from you that's very valuable to you. I'm a very big jazz aficionado. What would Miles Davis' life had been if at 22 years old he'd been told you can never play the trumpet again? You know what I mean?
 
"If I could go back, the one thing I would do different is savor every moment. Not just on the basketball court. People remember certain games that I did very well in. Like St. Bonaventure (when he scored a career-high 37, which is still a school record in the NCAA tourney). But I remember what it was like to sacrifice for a team, to have everyone pulling in the same direction for a common goal. It's the whole experience, about being around a certain type of person. And once you leave you'll never experience that again. It's the last pure freedom you're going to have. You're not dealing with mortgages and taxes. I wouldn't have taken it for granted. And many do."
 
Weinhauer for one never needed to be convinced of everything McDonald had going for him.
 
"He was always a little more sophisticated," he recalled. "He was mature beyond his years when he first got there. He asked me to push him, to be the best he could be. And I promise you I did.
 
"Missing a shot didn't bother him. You knew he'd come back and the next two or three were going in. Almost automatic. He could take over a game. There were times when he was unstoppable."
 
And now, what he was is being properly acknowledged. He's where he belongs, finally. Not that he ever needed to be told.
 
"Perhaps I'll never be able to fully explain or even understand how the Penn experience and post-Penn experience influenced me," McDonald said. "What I can say is now that I'm up there and have the advantage of looking back instead of going through it, I wouldn't have changed anything.
 
"I'm lucky enough to be remembered at all. Because most people aren't. So as disappointed as I was, I'm thankful to be remembered for anything. How many people would love to go to Penn and do nothing but study and play basketball?"
 
And look how far it's ultimately taken him. So celebrate the ride.