Whitefish Bay Football Celebrates Pat McKenna
- Updated: January 18, 2021
The Blue Dukes Football Nation celebrates the life and work of our dear friend Pat McKenna. This past week, at the age of 54 Pat finished his brave battle with pancreatic cancer and passed away surrounded by friends and family on Wednesday, January 6th. Since 2016, Pat served as our Webmaster for both the Whitefish Bay (WFB) High School and Junior Dukes teams. His leadership and support allowed the football program to launch a “best in state” website and have a first-class media presence for our players, families and alumni.
Behind the scenes, Pat researched school files and WFB yearbooks to chronicle the history of the program creating a platform for all things Blue Duke Football related. Never attempted previously, he collected every single team photo and player roster going back to our first squad in 1935. Once launched, the website allowed the team to further expand into all social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Often ahead of his time, Pat even campaigned for and wired our site for live in-game broadcasts. Operationally, Pat also helped the business side of the WFB Gridiron Club by expanding our reach into Paypal and Venmo to help parents and alumni easily support their team.
Though not a WFB alumni, Pat always maintained a close affinity for the program through his younger brother and 86’ team captain Kyle McKenna. (pictured below). The memorable 1986 season brought home a North Shore Conference Championship for the Dukes and forever cemented a close bond between the McKenna family and former Coach Jim Tietjen. Even though football ran through the McKenna clan with his brother playing linebacker for the Maryland Terrapins and his father Eck playing defensive back for the Canadian Football League Ottawa Roughriders, truth be told Pat was more of a hockey guy. His preference for hockey skates and a puck did not dim his enthusiasm in supporting his newly adopted football team. In fact, this past fall while still receiving chemo treatment from Froedtert Hospital, as part of the WFB Media Team, in typical Pat form he managed to gather enough strength to don his favorite Scottish kilt and attend the Dukes first home game of their undefeated season.
Prior to moving to Whitefish Bay, Pat attended high school in Buffalo, NY at Williamsville East and was a standout hockey goaltender wearing jersey #29 . Once in Milwaukee, he then completed his BA, in journalism and MA in Political Science with an emphasis in Constitutional Law at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Pursuing his interest in journalism, Pat directed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s new on-line division. It was here that Pat saw the tremendous technology potential and created MilwaukeeMoms.com to provide helpful information about parks and programs for parents with young children. Due to its tremendous success, the website was later acquired by the Journal Sentinel. Pat continued his own web development business, Mojoweb Productions, for the next twenty years of his life. Pat leaves behind his parents Eck and Karen McKenna (St. Petersburg, FL), his brother Kyle/Annie McKenna (Stubenville, OH), his sister Laura/Eric Macke (St. Petersburg, FL), his children Thomas (like his Dad a Political Science Major at the University of Wisconsin – Madison) and Fiona McKenna (Milwaukee), his fiancé Mindy Wynne along with 9 nieces and nephews: Alex, Ian, Tess, Tate, Margo, Magdalene, Piper, Otto and Ryan.
