Mac Wenskunas Explained

Mac Wenskunas
Birth Date:8 June 1922
Death Place:near Boody, Illinois, U.S.
Player Years1:1942
Player Team1:Illinois
Player Years2:1945–1946
Player Team2:Illinois
Player Positions:Center
Coach Years1:1947–1949
Coach Team1:Quincy (IL)
Coach Years2:1950–1953
Coach Team2:North Dakota State
Overall Record:30–27–1
Championships:2 Pioneer Conference (1947–1949)

Mac Paul Wenskunas (June 8, 1922 – August 3, 1957) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Quincy College from 1947 to 1949 and at North Dakota Agricultural College—now known as North Dakota State University—from 1950 to 1953, compiling a career head coaching record of 30–27–1.

A native of Georgetown, Illinois, Wenskunas played college football as a center at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He lettered for the Illinois Fighting Illini in 1942, 1945, and 1946. He was captain of the 1946 Illinois Fighting Illini football team, which won the Big Ten Conference and the 1947 Rose Bowl. He was a member of the 1947 All-Star team. His college playing years were interrupted by his service in the Marines during World War II.

He was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in the second round of the 1946 NFL draft with the 11th overall pick, but he was just a junior at the time and did not go to the NFL that year. The following year, he was drafted by the Chicago Rockets with the 136th pick in the 18th round of the 1947 AAFC Draft. Instead of playing football, he went into coaching. He spent three years as the head football coach at Quincy College, where his teams went 19–6 over three seasons and won the Pioneer Conference every year.[1] He then became head coach of North Dakota Agricultural College.[2]

After leaving coaching he moved to Athens, Ohio and then Decatur, Illinois working as a salesman for the Jostin Classroom Jewelry Company.

Wenskunas died with his wife in a two-car crash on August 3, 1957, near Boody, Illinois that also killed three other people.[3] [4]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Wenskunas Signs Contract . March 1, 2024.
  2. Web site: Football History . March 1, 2024.
  3. News: Three Still Critical After Fatal Crash . August 5, 1957 . March 1, 2024 .
  4. News: . Mac Wenskunas, Ex-Grid Star, Is Victim of Crash . . . . August 5, 1957 . 8 . June 19, 2017 . .