CU's MacIntyre Takes Opportunity To Honor Mentor Sparks
March 14, 2017 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre traveled to Tennessee last weekend to honor to a friend and mentor, a contemporary of his father (the late George MacIntyre), and a man who also happens to be one of the most successful football coaches in the history of the game.
Ken Sparks, who coached at Carson-Newman University for 37 years, has been in hospice care as he battles cancer. MacIntyre and a number of other of Sparks' friends gathered in Tennessee over the weekend to participate in an annual clinic that has become a Sparks legacy. The list of attendees included such names as former NFL head coach and coordinator Chan Gailey, former Air Force head coach Fisher DeBerry and current Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen.
MacIntyre never played for Sparks. He never coached for Sparks. But he still considers him one of his most important mentors because, "He helped you with life. He knew football — he's one of the winningest coaches in college history — but his true passion was his faith and family."
Sparks retired at the end of last season with 338 wins to his name, the fifth-most in NCAA history. He won five NAIA national titles at Carson-Newman, then added three more NCAA Division II title game appearances and another semifinal berth to the list when the school moved from NAIA to the NCAA. All told, he won 21 South Atlantic Conference titles and recorded 25 NCAA or NAIA playoff appearances.
But throughout that storied career, he emphasized the importance of family.
MacIntyre first met Sparks when he was 13 years old and attended a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp with his father in North Carolina. MacIntyre returned to the FCA camp as a participant for several years after that, then as a college athlete/counselor and then as a coach.
"Coach Sparks is a true man of faith," MacIntyre said. "When I went back to the FCA camp, I really got to know him. We would always go on runs together and I'd seek his wisdom. We stayed in contact over the years and became close. I've used a lot of things from him over the years in regards to football and family. He's been a mentor to me in a lot of ways."
Roughly 30 years ago, Sparks began a coaching clinic that was unique — it included coaches' wives.
"He wanted the opportunity to have a coaches clinic and also have a way of strengthening the marriage and family at the same time," MacIntyre said. "You would have 150 coaches and 150 wives show up. The wives would get together and talk, the coaches would get together and do the same, and then we'd all come together and talk about how to keep our marriages and families strong."
The message was usually simple but impactful.
"The coaching business creates some unique circumstances, and the chance to discuss those things in that kind of environment was an invaluable experience," MacIntyre said. "I think what I really took from him and what I've always kept is, 'Keep going.' Don't give up on your marriage, don't give up on your future. Keep loving, keep caring, keep going. You face different stresses in life, especially in our profession, but that's what those weekends did for a lot of people — they taught us to keep going."
Many of those clinic attendees from years past gathered in Tennessee last weekend.
"The thing about Coach Sparks is that he has always given more than he's taken in life — with his players, his coaches, everyone," MacIntyre said. "He has befriended a lot of coaches through the years and made a difference in their lives. When we all got together last weekend it was tough — but we also got to sit around the fireplace, talk and share stories from over the years. It was a neat experience in that regard."
Sparks' influence has reached throughout the coaching ranks across the nation — and it is a legacy that will continue for years to come. Carson-Newman plans to continue to host the annual clinic that hosts coaches and their wives.
"You look at him and what he has accomplished, it's about the people that he's touched, the lives that he's touched," Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes recently told a Tennessee television station. "He's touched my life in a way that I feel blessed and to me that's what he is about."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu