Ted Kessinger
Ted Kessinger is an American former college football coach. He served as the head football coach at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas from 1976 to 2003, compiling a record of 219–57–1 for a winning percentage of. He is among the college football coaches with List of [college football career coaching wins leaders|the most wins] and the List of college football career [coaching winning percentage leaders|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, Kent Kessinger, was the head coach at Ottawa University from 2004 to 2021.
Coaching career
Assistant coaching
Before becoming a head coach, Kessinger worked as an assistant coach at Augustana College—now known as Augustana University—in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.Bethany
Kessinger was the head football coach at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas 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] in 2005.