Burt E. Kennedy


Burt E. Kennedy was an American college football and college basketball coach. He served as the head football coach at Olivet College—now known as the University of Olivet—in Olivet, Michigan from 1904 to 1907 and Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois from 1908 to 1913.

Early life

Kennedy was originally from Lake Forest, Illinois, and graduated from Simpson College, in Indianola, Iowa, in 1904. He played football at Simpson, earning All-Iowa honors for three consecutive seasons.

Coaching career

Kennedy served as the head football coach, head basketball coach, and athletic director at Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan for four years beginning in 1904.
In 1908, Kennedy was appointed athletic director, coach, and mathematics instructor at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois. He served as Lake Forest's head basketball coach from 1908 to 1914, leading his teams to a record of 58–20 in six seasons. Kennedy stepped down from his role at Lake Forest in the spring of 1914, and planned to go into business.

Later life and death

In 1914, Kennedy began working with Swift & Company of Chicago. In 1919, he was appointed general manager for Swift International in South America. He died on July 16, 1935, in Buenos Aires, from injuries he sustained in an automobile accident several days earlier. Kennedy was the brother of Walter S. Kennedy, who was also a college football and college basketball coach and later a newspaper publisher.