Mac Wenskunas

{{Short description|American football player and coach (1922–1957)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

{{Infobox college coach

| name = Mac Wenskunas

| image =

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|6|8}}

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1957|8|3|1922|6|8}}

| death_place = near Boody, Illinois, U.S.

| alma_mater =

| 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

| bowl_record =

| tournament_record =

| championships = 2 Pioneer Conference (1947–1949)

| awards =

| coaching_records =

}}

Mac Paul Wenskunas (June 8, 1922 – August 3, 1957) was an American college 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 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.{{cite web |title=Wenskunas Signs Contract |url=https://www.phikappapsi.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/1950-51_vol71_no1-4.pdf |access-date=March 1, 2024}} He then became head coach of North Dakota Agricultural College.{{cite web |title=Football History |url=https://quhawks.com/sports/2011/1/3/FB_0103112057.aspx |access-date=March 1, 2024}}

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.{{cite news |title=Three Still Critical After Fatal Crash |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-decatur-daily-review-wenskunas-macpa/20044457/ |date=August 5, 1957 |access-date=March 1, 2024 }}{{cite news |author= |title=Mac Wenskunas, Ex-Grid Star, Is Victim of Crash |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11787140/mt_vernon_registernews/ |newspaper=Mt. Vernon Register-News |location=Mount Vernon, Illinois |agency=Associated Press |date=August 5, 1957 |page=8 |access-date=June 19, 2017 |via=Newspapers.com {{Open access}} }}