- Ken Sparks
College coach infobox
Name = Ken Sparks
| ImageWidth =
Caption =
Title =
College =Carson-Newman College (1968-Present)
Sport = Football
Conference =South Atlantic Conference
CurrentRecord = 259-62-2 (as of 12/07) [http://carsonnewmaneagles.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/sparks_ken00.html carsonnewmaneagles.cstv.com]
DateOfBirth =
Birthplace =Knoxville, Tennessee
DateOfDeath =
Deathplace =
OverallRecord =
Contract =
BowlRecord =
TournamentRecord =
CFbDWID =
Championships = NAIA Champion - 1983, 1984 (tie), 1986, 1988, 1989
NAIA Runner Up - 1987
NCAA Division II Runner Up - 1996, 1998, 1999
18 South Atlantic Conference (SAC) championships
Awards = President,American Football Coaches Association (2007)
CoachingRecords =
Player =
Years =
Team =
Position =
Coach =
CoachYears =
CoachTeams =
FootballHOF =
CollegeHOFID =
BBallHOF =Ken Sparks (born 1947) [Birth date is based on the 1968 Carson Newman graduation] is a
football coach ofCarson-Newman College inJefferson City, Tennessee who has been with the school since 1980 and is the winningest football coach inNCAA Division II history.Early life
Sparks was born in Knoxville. He was a wide receiver with 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 Tech University where he also coached quarterbacks and receivers. He coached atMorristown, Tennessee East High School.In the early 1970s he was 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 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 . In 1980 he began coaching at Carson-Newman.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." [ [http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?id=4397 Carson-Newman football coach knows what's really important - Baptist Press - December 17, 1999] ]National championship appearances
*Champion
NAIA national football championship , 1983, 1984 (tie with Central Arkansas), 1986, 1988, 1989
*Runner up on NAIA national championship, 1987
*Runner up inNCAA Division II national football championship in 1996, 1998, 1999.Overall NCAA Winning Active Coaches in 2007
*
John Gagliardi -College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University - (431-117-11)
*Bobby Bowden -Florida State University -(358-105-4)
*Joe Paterno -Penn State University - (352-117-3)
*Ken Sparksee also
List of presidents of the American Football Coaches Association References
External links
* [http://www.tshf.net/inductees/2004Sparks.htm Tennessee Football Sports Hall of Fame 2004 Inductee Biography]
* [http://www.afca.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=61518&SPID=6691&DB_OEM_ID=9300&ATCLID=289684 AFCA biography]
* [http://www.afca.com/lev2.cfm/629 AFCA biography]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
