Mustangs husband and wife both Inducted into the 2024 Western Sports Hall of Fame

By Pam McKenzie (nee Middleton), BA’78, BEd’79

Pam & Don McKenzie pictured during their Western rowing days, and recently

Our 2024 Western Mustangs Hall of Fame class included two ‘duos.’ The induction of Brianne Barry, BMOS’13, marked the first father-daughter pair to be in our Hall of Fame. Read Brianne and her father Mike Barry’s, BA’80, story here. The second duo is Pam McKenzie (nee Middleton), BA’78, BEd’79, and Don McKenzie, BESc’80, who were both inducted this year – Pam as part of the 1980 Heavy Eight rowing team, and Don as part of the 1977 football team.

I was introduced to rowing in the spring of 1976 while finishing the second year of the honours physical education program. I was hooked. In the fall I waited alongside 75+ individuals all vying for a seat in a racing shell. Those of us who were determined to wait around, and who made it through various cuts got a seat in a boat, and that’s where the work began.

Rowing provided me an opportunity to fulfil my desire to contribute to the university and be a part of something larger, beyond being a student. The first couple of years, I committed to rowing in the spring, summer, and fall. The full year program allowed me to improve my skills and technique, gain experience, meet new crew members, and work toward being my best.

In June of 1978, while working on the rigging for our women’s eight, we all heard an unusual racket coming up the road. This guy rides up on a dirt bike, hair down to his shoulders, wearing blue jean shorts and we all wondered who the heck this guy was! Doc, the head rowing coach, took one look at him, asked him who he was and said, “McKenzie, get in the boat!”

Don McKenzie played a variety of sports in high school and played with the Mustang football program upon starting in the engineering program at Western. That fateful day he was at the rowing club to meet a friend to go dirt biking after practice.

As Don tells it, it was sometime during June as crews were getting established that he first noticed me. At 5’4” and acting like a pit bill I was admonishing Dennis Fortune, BSc’77, MEngSc’80, a 6’4” lightweight rower (and brother to Brian who was also inducted into the 2024 Western Sports Hall of Fame alongside Don as part of Men’s football), for failing to pay his summer fees.

After rowing for that first summer, Don, with Ross MacDonald, BA’77, DipEd’78, (also inducted into the Western Mustang Sports Hall of Fame this year as part of Men’s football), went back to his football coach, Darwin, and told him: “I am quitting football and plan to row! Why? Because I can still be involved in a varsity sport, and there are women on my team!”

Our romance was only supposed to last for that summer, but those early months turned into two years. I had finished university and was working at the London YMCA. Thankfully, I was able to continue my participation in rowing. In the new year, to my surprise and shock, Don proposed!

We both advanced in our respective rowing endeavors, each winning Henley medals the summer of 1980. We set our wedding date to coincide with the finish of summer rowing, not knowing that my Women’s eight, which was inducted into the Western Mustangs Sports Hall of Fame in 2024, would be invited to compete in Mexico.

We have now been married for 44 years and sports did not end that summer of 1980. Don’s first job after graduating took us to Alberta. We jumped in right away to new activities, including back country hiking and white-water paddling, learning as we went. Both of us became volunteers with the Canadian Ski Patrol, Don for 20 years.

I replaced rowing with road racing. Marathons followed, including Boston, one ultra, then triathlons with one half iron under my belt. Triathlons got both Don and I back on bikes. Cycle touring, which we started in 2010, became another sport we could both participate in together. It has taken us all over Europe.

We have two wonderful boys and perhaps unsurprisingly they were both involved in sports. Our youngest took up rowing for two years while in university. He also rowed in the summer program at the Calgary Rowing Club where his first coach was Blair Rasmussen, BA’86, little brother of “Big and Little Ras,” who rowed with us at Western.

Don and I have found that the commitment and dedication required to be part of a team carries over to your partner in life. Having the partner I have in Don has expanded my confidence in trying new things, which is important when you pack up a bike, pack your panniers with the bare minimum, load routes into a Garmin and take off down the road.