• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • CR Radio
  • Printing
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Deacon John “Jack” McKenna, back row, right, helped launch a youth basketball program at St. Clement I in Lansdowne. Its upper-grade team is shown in 1969, after a victory at the Sweet 16 tournament at Mount St. Joseph High School. His son, John Jr., is third from left in the back row. Tom Grace is third from right in the middle row. Grace’s brother, Mike, is far right in the front row. (Courtesy Madalen McKenna Kight)

St. Clement basketball reunion honors late deacon who never stopped giving to Lansdowne

April 3, 2019
By Paul McMullen
Filed Under: #IamCatholic, Feature, Local News, News, Schools, Sports

The late Deacon John McKenna, left, and his son-in-law Bob Kight work the basketball scorers’ table at St. Clement I Parish in Lansdowne, in an undated photo. (Courtesy Madalen McKenna Kight)

When St. Clement I Parish in Lansdowne holds a basketball reunion April 7, it’s appropriate that former players and coaches will gather a half-mile to the west, at the Leadership Through Athletics gym.

The private LTA facility is a good work of the Grace family. The Grace brothers all played Catholic Youth Organization basketball for St. Clement in the 1960s and ’70s, and thus experienced the positive influence of the man who got hundreds of youths involved in the game.

In addition to serving the Knights of Columbus, Holy Name Society, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Mount St. Joseph High School, his prep alma mater, the late Deacon John “Jack” McKenna began an intramural basketball program at St. Clement, which developed into a large CYO footprint for the parish.

“Every year we induct people into our (LTA) Hall of Fame, and he was one of the first to get in,” said Dr. Tom Grace, who was in the class of 1969 at the former St. Clement School. “Mr. Jack was the real deal, he provided direction for so many people, not with what he said, but with what he did. If he wasn’t coaching or keeping the scorebook, he was volunteering at the concession stand.

“He first put a basketball in my hand when I was in the sixth grade. Our father was self-employed, and told us, ‘St. Clement is starting a basketball program, and you’re going to play,’ to keep us busy.”

It helped that it was a family affair.

The Filipino community, under the auspices of the Tony Rose Foundation, is among the groups that make use of the Leadership Through Athletics gym. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Grace’s father and Madalen Grace McKenna, Deacon Jack’s wife, were first cousins. When the McKenna’s daughter, Madalen Kight, coached a CYO championship team in 1973, her players included Kelly Kreiner Grace, who is married to the third of the Grace brothers, Pat.

Back then, Madalen Kight was a sophomore at the former Archbishop Keough High School. Her three brothers followed their father to Mount St. Joseph, where he was active in alumni affairs.

As his daughter Madalen tells it, Deacon McKenna lacked direction after the death of his father until, as a teen, he encountered Father Canice Gardiner, then a Passionist seminarian in Irvington, who introduced him to the game of basketball.

His daughter, Madalen, noted that “Basketball is a team sport and it took a team of dedicated volunteers helping my father to run the program,” she said. Those volunteers included her mother, who ran the concession stand.

A U.S. Air Force veteran and civil servant with multiple degrees from what was then Loyola College, Deacon McKenna led his parish’s participation in SHARE, the former food co-op that was organized by Catholic Charities of Baltimore. Ordained to the permanent diaconate in 1987, he died in 2016.

By then the St. Clement basketball program had closed along with its school, which now houses Sisters Academy of Baltimore, an independent school for girls in grades 5-8.

Neighborhood youths, as well as an attorneys’ league, wheelchair players, and, on a recent Saturday, the Filipino community, find a haven at the LTA gym, which the Grace family opened in 2004.

Cornelius McMurray works with young basketball players March 30 in the upper level basketball court of the Leadership Through Athletics gym. A safe space for adults and children alike, the LTA gym will host a St. Clement I Parish basketball reunion April 7. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Tom Grace, a plastic surgeon, and his three brothers went to the former Cardinal Gibbons High School after St. Clement. Tom, Michael and Patrick all serve on the board of LTA, which, according to its mission statement, provides “programs and opportunities that encourage leadership and values development, enhance educational experiences, and promote health and fitness.”

It’s appropriate that the St. Clement reunion at LTA will be held in the middle of the Final Four, college basketball’s biggest weekend, as Tom and his wife, Terri, the parents of six children, have two sons who were walk-on players at three-time NCAA champion Villanova University.

Tom was a senior in 2005, when the Wildcats lost by one point to eventual champion North Carolina in the Sweet 16. Denny was a practice player in 2016, when Villanova won it all, and suited up for the 2018 NCAA champions.

For more information about the reunion, email Madalen@leadershipthroughathletics.org or call 410-242-0039.

 

Email Paul McMullen at pmcmullen@CatholicReview.org

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Paul McMullen

Paul McMullen, a resident of Austin, Texas, served as the managing editor of the Catholic Review from 2008 until his retirement in September 2021.

The author of two books, Paul has been involved in local media since age 12, when he began delivering The News American to 80 homes in his neighborhood. He began his journalism career with the Capital-Gazette Newspapers in Anne Arundel County, and spent more than 25 years as a sports writer for The Sun in Baltimore. His favorite writing assignments have included the Summer Olympics in Australia and Greece, the Archdiocese of Baltimore's response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and “Feet for Francis,” a 2015 walking pilgrimage from the Baltimore Basilica to Philadelphia to see Pope Francis.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

Latest Local News

RADIO INTERVIEW: The state of the nation

Archbishop William Lori announces clergy appointments, including two new pastors

Father Roach, noted church historian and longtime pastor, will stay active in retirement

Father Simmons retiring as the oldest active priest in the archdiocese

Father Ruane, known for empowering laity, retiring as pastor of Howard County parish

Latest World News

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in as Supreme Court justice

San Antonio archbishop asks church to be in solidarity with migrants who died in truck

Missionaries of Charity kicked out of Nicaragua

Catholics need better understanding of the Mass, pope says

Supreme Court sides with coach in public school prayer case

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • RADIO INTERVIEW: The state of the nation
  • Pretzels, treats and reflections during a staycation (7 Quick Takes)
  • When life gives you lemons, serve ice cream cake
  • Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is sworn in as Supreme Court justice
  • What would the baby choose?
  • MOVIE REVIEW: ‘Elvis’
  • Archbishop William Lori announces clergy appointments, including two new pastors
  • Father Ruane, known for empowering laity, retiring as pastor of Howard County parish
  • Spotlighting four Archdiocese of Baltimore Distinctive Scholars

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2022 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED