Virginia Military Institute - Bomb Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

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ASSES

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CfKicli McKii.iia pivs.MiLs 111,, first l)r trophy— The Footl all Award r,f I John Kngels. The sevenly-fiflh (. ' dilion of llic VMI Ho.mh is dedicuU-d to thu ' M1. coaching sLafV in all sports, and in particular to Coach John JNIcKenna, V ' MI ' s head football coach. It is liighly praiseworthy that VMI coaches have been able to field the excellent teams that have won consistently in past competition. With but a small scholarship program in athletics and a student body of less than a thousand cadets to draw from, the records of all MI athletic teams have been outstanding. Coach McKenna ' s background includes Ail-American mention as a center on Vi lla- nova ' s unscored-upon 1937 football team (he graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy in 1938), Naval air service, a stint at Malvern Prep in Philadelphia, and a tour as assistant coach at Villanova and Loyola of Los Angeles. He served as line coach for VMI in 19.5 ' -2 and was the unanimous choice for the head coaching position in 1953. He has done very well with VMI athletics, coming at a time when subsidized football had reached a very low ebb with scandals in a number of schools. Itdvcnna succeeded in raising the standards of football and the prestige of collegiate athletics in the state. In his first season as head coach, VMI won the Big Six championship. In the 1957 season the team went undefeated to win the Southern Conference as well as the Big Six crown, and Coach John McKenna was named the Southern Conference Coach of the Year. This year ' s Big Red extended the winning streak to eighteen games. A gentleman and a leader of young men, Coach McKenna has won the friendshi]) of all those with whom he has come in contact, and the respect of his players with his thorough- ness and strict discipline, and the admiration of fans and sports writers throughout Virginia. McKenna follows a simple — if not easy — rule of trying to instill in the players ' minds the feeling that each game is an entity in itself, and that what has gone on before or may be coming in the next weeks has nothing to do with the game at hand. Coach McKenna deals in two commodities — fundamentals and facts. On the foot- ball field at practice, it is the former. At the banquet table, it is the latter. McKenua ' s attributes as a speaker and as a VMI ambassador make him an excellent advertisement for ' MI and athletics in general. His modesty, sincerity; and flow of words at the speaker ' s rostrum would do credit to a college president. Newspaper columnists have called Coach McKenna an articulate and entertaining speaker, ... a spirited competitor, a deep thinker who doesn ' t speak unless he has something to say . . . . The Corps is extremely proud to have been associated with this extraordinary gentle- man and coach. The dedication of this seventy-fifth edition of the Bomb is but a small measure of the esteem with which he and all the coaching staff ' are held by the Corps, the Institute, and the Alumni.

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THE ATHLETICS