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Ken Sparks

American football player and coach (1944–2017)

Summary

American football player and coach (1944–2017)

Field	Value
name	Ken Sparks
birth_date
birth_place	Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
player_years1	1967
player_team1	Carson–Newman
player_positions	Wide receiver
coach_years1	1977–1979
coach_team1	Farragut HS (TN)
coach_years2	1980–2016
coach_team2	Carson–Newman
overall_record	338–99–2 (college)
29–5 (high school)
tournament_record	19–5 (NAIA D-I playoffs)
19–15 (NCAA D-II playoffs)
championships	5 NAIA Division I (1983–1984, 1986, 1988–1989)
21 SAC (1982–1984, 1986, 1988–1991, 1993–1999, 2002–2004, 2007–2009)
awards	NAIA Division I Coach of the Year (1984)
CFBHOF_year	2026

29–5 (high school) 19–15 (NCAA D-II playoffs) 21 SAC (1982–1984, 1986, 1988–1991, 1993–1999, 2002–2004, 2007–2009) Ken Sparks (February 25, 1944 – March 29, 2017) was an American football coach and player. He served as the head football coach at Carson–Newman University in Jefferson City, Tennessee from 1980 until his retirement at the end of the 2016 season. He is currently the record-holder for the most wins as a coach in NCAA Division II history. His Carson–Newman Eagles won five NAIA Championships (1983–1984, 1986, 1988–1989), and were three times runners-up in the NCAA Division II playoffs (1996, 1998, and 1999).

Biography

Sparks was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He played college football as a wide receiver at Carson–Newman and graduated from the school in 1968. He was football coach at Gibbs High School in Knoxville. The next year, he received a master's degree from Tennessee Technological University where he also coached quarterbacks and receivers. He coached at Morristown East High School in Morristown, Tennessee.

In the early 1970s, Sparks was an assistant coach on the Carson–Newman football team that was a runner up in the NAIA championship game. He coached the school's track team and he was named Southern Collegiate Track Coach of the Year. In 1977, he returned to Carson–Newman, where he coached the track team.

In the fall, he coached at Farragut High School in Knoxville where he accumulated a 29–5 record. Among his players was Bill Bates.

Following his string of successes, Carson–Newman built the new Burke–Tarr Stadium in 2005.

Sparks, who was once Fellowship of Christian Athletes National Coach of the Year, actively pursues a Christian aspect in his coaching and is a popular public speaker. He was quoted as saying that, if football can be used as a tool to bring people to the Lord, then "it has done something. If it hasn't, we haven't done a thing, no matter how many games we won."

After 37 years as the head coach at Carson–Newman University, Ken Sparks announced his retirement on November 14, 2016, at a press conference in the Ken Sparks Athletic Complex on the campus of Carson–Newman University.

Sparks died March 29, 2017, after a four-year battle with prostate cancer.

Head coaching record

College

References

(December 17, 1999). "Carson-Newman football coach knows what's really important".
(November 14, 2016). "Legendary Carson-Newman head coach Ken Sparks announces retirement".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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