A well respected local businessman, McKenna had fallen in love with football whilst watching Everton play at the newly build Anfield stadium.  When Everton left Anfield, McKenna was keen to help out his friend John Houlding, and relished the opportunity to be a part of Houlding's new club.

When Liverpool Association, as the club was called at the time, was denied entry into the Football League in 1892, McKenna saw it as his personal goal to prove the FA wrong, and set about creating a team capable of winning promotion through the local Lancashire Leagues.

In order to field a team, McKenna used his contacts to recruit players from the Irish community in Glasgow.  The team, known as the "team of the Macs", because eight of the players had the prefix 'Mc' in their name duly won their opening match 7-1 against Rotherham Town.  It was the perfect start for McKenna. 

Liverpool finished their first season as Lancashire Champions, prompting McKenna to once again appeal to the FA to allow Liverpool entry into the Football League.  This time the club was accepted and Liverpool began their second season in the Second Division.

After a successful first season in the Football League Second Division, Liverpool found themselves playing a test match against Newton Heath (soon to become Manchester United), to see which team gained promotion to the First Division.  Liverpool duly won the game 2-0, confirming the clubs promotion to the First Division.  For McKenna, it was the first step in turning Liverpool into the countries top football team.

By the time Liverpool were relegated back to the Second Division in 1895 McKenna was working alongside W E Barclay, although Barclay seems to have been acting as Club Secretary, rather than day to day manager.  At the time Barclay famously remarked that Liverpool would soon bounce back from relegation, and would only be relegated for one year.  This display of fighting spirit and resolve would become synonymous with Liverpool Football Club for years to come.

As McKenna flourished, so did the club.  Attendances increased, resulting in McKenna building a new stand for the supporters.  However, in 1913 the Arsenal Chairman accused McKenna of match fixing.  Shocked and appalled McKenna immediately called for an investigation, during which he was completely exonerated.  The Arsenal Chairman later apologised.

Unfortunately for McKenna 4 of his players were later charged with match fixing, and all received life time bans, although 3 had their bans lifted after serving in WWI.

By 1915 McKenna was ready to step down from the day to day running of the club and handed the Chairmanship over to W R Williams, although he remained an integral part of the clubs administrative staff.

John McKenna died in March 1936, having devoted over 40 years of his life to the club.  It is difficult to assess where Liverpool Football Club would be now had McKenna not played his part, but it is almost certain that it would not have enjoyed the early successes, or taken such great strides so early after its formation without John McKenna driving it forward.