Patrick John O'Dea (1872-1962) was born in Kilmore, Victoria, Australia. He played Australian Rules football briefly for the Melbourne Football Club, but became famous after he followed his brother Andy, a rowing coach, to the USA.

He played football for the University of Wisconsin from 1896 to 1899, captaining the team in 1898 and 1899. Pat O'Dea’s spectacular punting, drop-kicking and goal kicking skills made him legendary and he was one of the leading full-backs of the pre-forward pass era. O'Dea, along with players such as Clarence Herschberger of the University of Chicago, did much to erase the snobbery and superiority of the leading eastern teams of Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Penn.