Ted Kessinger (born January 15, 1941) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

coach. He served as the head football coach at Bethany College in

Lindsborg, Kansas Lindsborg is a city in McPherson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,776. Lindsborg is known for its large Swedish, other Nordic and Scandinavian Americans ( Nordic- Scandinavian), and Germ ...

from 1976 to 2003, compiling a record of 219–57–1 for a winning percentage of . He is among the college football coaches with the most wins and the highest winning percentage. Kessinger was the head coach of the first American football team to play in Sweden, and he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2010. His son is Kent Kessinger, the head coach at

Ottawa University Ottawa University (OU) is a private Baptist university with its main campus in Ottawa, Kansas, a second residential campus in Surprise, Arizona, and adult campuses in the Kansas City, Phoenix and Milwaukee metropolitan areas. It was founded in ...

Coaching career

Assistant coaching

Before becoming a head coach, Kessinger worked as an assistant coach at Augustana College in

Sioux Falls, South Dakota Sioux Falls () is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Dakota and the 130th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Minnehaha County and also extends into Lincoln County to the south, which continues up ...

and the

South Dakota Coyotes The South Dakota Coyotes, also known as the USD Coyotes (locally pronounced ; ), are the athletic teams for the University of South Dakota. Their team colors are vermilion and white. They have been members of Summit League of the NCAA's Divisio ...

Vermillion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its corresponding color. It is v ...

Bethany

Kessinger was the head football coach at Bethany College in

from 1976 to 2003, where he posted a record of 219–57–1. He guided Bethany to the NAIA playoffs ten times and achieved a top 25 ranking 20 times. His teams never posted a losing season during his entire coaching tenure. In 2000, his team won the American Family Charity Bowl, defeating the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes by a score of 20–3. Kessinger was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 2003 as well as the

Kansas Sports Hall of Fame The Kansas Sports Hall of Fame is a museum located in Wichita, dedicated to preserving the history of sports in the state of Kansas. The museum provides exhibits, archives, facilities, services, and activities to honor those individuals and te ...

in 2005.

Head coaching record

Football

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kessinger, Ted 1941 births Living people American football centers American football linebackers Augustana (Illinois) Vikings football coaches Augustana (South Dakota) Vikings football coaches Augustana (South Dakota) Vikings football players Bethany Swedes football coaches South Dakota Coyotes football coaches College wrestling coaches in the United States College Football Hall of Fame inductees People from Lindsborg, Kansas Sportspeople from Sioux Falls, South Dakota Players of American football from South Dakota