Carson-Newman's Ken Sparks steps down with 338 career wins

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. -- Carson-Newman Eagles coach Ken Sparks has retired, ending a 37-season career in which he won 338 games to rank fifth on the NCAA's all-time list.

"It's been an unbelievable journey,'' Sparks said Monday during a news conference at the athletic complex that has been named after him.

The only coaches with more career wins are John Gagliardi (489), Joe Paterno (409), Eddie Robinson (408) and Bobby Bowden (377). Sparks went 338-99-2 and had the most wins of any active coach.

Sparks, 72, had continued coaching even after announcing in 2012 that he had cancer.

"Every day is a celebration,'' Sparks said Monday. "I am at peace with this decision.''

On Tuesday, Carson-Newman promoted offensive coordinator Mike Turner to succeed Sparks as head coach. 

Turner is a former Carson-Newman center who graduated in 1973. He had his first stint as Carson-Newman's offensive coordinator from 1987-91 before leaving to take a high school head coaching job. Turner took over as Carson-Newman's offensive coordinator again in 1995 and had been there ever since.

Before Carson-Newman entered the NCAA ranks in 1993, Sparks led the Eagles to five NAIA national championships -- in 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1989. Carson-Newman was an NAIA runner-up in 1987 and lost in the NCAA Division II championship game in 1996, 1998 and 1999. Carson-Newman reached the Division II semifinals in 2009.

Sparks' teams won 21 South Atlantic Conference championships and earned 25 NCAA or NAIA playoff appearances.

Carson-Newman went 4-7 this year, only the second losing season in Sparks' career.

Sparks was inducted into the inaugural NCAA Division II Hall of Fame coaches class in 2010 along with Northwest Missouri State's Mel Tjeerdsma and West Alabama's Bobby Wallace. Sparks also is in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and the NAIA Hall of Fame.

"This is a day that none of us looked forward to as Carson-Newman football fans and supporters, but it's a day we honor and a day we rejoice in,'' Carson-Newman athletic director Allen Morgan said. "It's a day we honor Ken and the legacy he is leaving for how he has touched young men's lives in a way far greater than wins on a football field.''