McDonald elevated Quinnipiac to Division I in 1998, a move that triggered several landmark milestones. The hockey program, based in part on construction of the new facility, was admitted to the ECAC in 2006, allowing it to compete against top academic and hockey schools. In December 2012, it accepted an invitation to join the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in all other sports.
 
McDonald also brokered television, radio and Internet packages for the Bobcats, including competitions seen on NESN, ESPN3 and ESPNU. The Bobcats won 33 conference championships and made 21 NCAA Championship appearances during McDonald's tenure as AD, including the men's ice hockey team reaching the Frozen Four and National Championship Game in 2013.
 
A former NACDA Executive Committee member, McDonald was inducted into the NACDA Hall of Fame this summer and honored as an Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year in 2013-14. He served as DI-AAA ADA President in 2008-09 and received the Association's Gary Cunningham Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
 
After his retirement from Quinnipiac, McDonald became associate vice president and director of athletics at the University of New England (UNE), where he eventually became vice president of student engagement and director of athletics before he retired from UNE in 2017.
 
Jack McDonald grew up in Braintree, Ma and attended and ran track & field at Archbishop Williams ('69) and was also a life-long summer resident and now lives permanently in Ocean Bluff/Marshfield, Ma.